On March 13, 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange closed. The USSR declared itself the first country in the world to overcome unemployment.

In Russia, labor exchanges created by city governments arose at the beginning of the twentieth century in the largest industrial centers - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Odessa. Along with them, private intermediary firms became widespread, charging high fees from the unemployed for providing work.

In the USSR, labor exchanges existed in the first years of Soviet power. They were an instrument of the proletarian state in the systematic fight against unemployment - the “legacy of capitalism.” The decree “On Labor Exchanges”, published on January 31, 1918 and signed by V.I. Lenin, liquidated all private and paid bureaus and hiring offices and established state free labor exchanges. They were entrusted with: employment of the unemployed, issuing benefits to them, accounting and distribution of workers in all sectors National economy, as well as streamlining the demand and supply of labor, organizing public works, etc.

Stalin made the fight against unemployment in the USSR one of the most important tasks.

“One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years is that we eliminated unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” Stalin I.V., Results of the first five-year plan, “Questions of Leninism”, p. 501, ed. 10th.

On March 13, 1930, the last job order was issued at the Moscow Labor Exchange - to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov, after which the exchange closed.

Modern Russia

It’s not very often that representatives of big business allow themselves the luxury of being frank. The most odious initiatives of employers, such as Prokhorov’s amendments to the Labor Code, are usually accompanied by demagoguery about social responsibility and the desire to make working people happy. All the more valuable are the revelations of businessmen like Oleg Tinkov, who do not hesitate to publicly express the cherished thoughts and aspirations of their class.

The billionaire shared his impressions after visiting a sneaker factory in China in the video blog of Finance magazine. According to Tinkov, unemployment is an excellent incentive for increasing labor productivity.

“So we need to teach technologies, and the factor that forces us to implement these technologies is the queue on the streets. These times, fortunately, have come. I actually love this crisis. I like it because efficiency and labor productivity increase, people become more accommodating. Otherwise there were no waiters to be found in the restaurant... They’ll go now, thank God. And they will work better for the same money. This is good", says Tinkov.

Monstrous working conditions Chinese enterprises, famous for their meager wages, widespread use of child labor, disregard for basic safety rules and brutal suppression of labor protests, are the object of constant criticism from international organizations and trade unions. Such factories are aptly named sweatshops. Mr. Tinkov, without a shadow of embarrassment, proclaims lawlessness and poverty as a condition for “increasing labor productivity.”

We should be grateful to Mr. Tinkov. The more such revelations there are, the sooner thinking Russian workers will begin to see the essence behind the smooth speeches of the gentlemen from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the government, the sooner they will develop in themselves the same clear understanding of their class interests as the Tinkovs.

Reference:

Oleg Tinkov was born on December 25, 1967 in Leninsk-Kuznetsky. Since 1992, he was engaged in the wholesale trade of electronics from Singapore and created the Tekhnoshok chain of household appliance stores, the MusicShok chain of stores, and the SHOK-Records recording studio in St. Petersburg. In 1997, he sold these companies and started the dumpling business, producing products under the Daria brand. In 2003, he created the Tinkoff brewing company (sold in 2005, the proceeds from the transaction are estimated at approximately 200 million €) and a restaurant chain of the same name with their own breweries (sold on September 24, 2009). Since 2006 he has been heading commercial Bank"Tinkoff. Credit Systems". In October 2012, Oleg Tinkov, together with other shareholders, sold a 4% stake in TKS Bank to the Horizon Capital fund for $40 million, thus his entire business was valued at $1 billion. In April 2013, Forbes magazine placed him in the ranking of newcomers among the richest businessmen of Russia.

In 1930, 80 years ago, the closure of the Central Labor Exchange in Moscow was solemnly announced. And it was ordered to consider that from that day on, the USSR became the first and only country in the world to overcome unemployment...
Taking advantage of the opportunity and the anniversary, “Vecherka” decided to find out whether, in fact, all Soviet citizens were “attached”, as well as when the labor exchanges were revived and what they look like today.

Queue at Rakhmanovsky
Hundreds of gloomy people crowd around closed doors. A typical picture from the life of Rakhmanovsky Lane in the 1920s - there, in house No. 3 (where the Ministry of Health is now located), there was a “Mecca” of the Moscow unemployed, the Central Labor Exchange.
The problem with unemployment in Russia began to emerge after the reforms of the 1860s, when peasants left without land poured into the cities. The writer Fyodor Reshetnikov describes in the story “On the Nikolsky Market” (1866) how they tried to settle down in St. Petersburg. The women, huddled together, in the rain and snow from 5 am to 8 pm, hung out in the dirty bazaar, and, seeing a passerby, began to shout: “Take me as a cook!”, “But who needs a wet nurse, I gave birth for the third month.”
Compared to this hustle and bustle, the labor exchanges were a step forward. The first one appeared in Moscow in 1901. But they began to be created en masse after the revolution. By the way, one of the first laws adopted by the Bolsheviks was the “Regulations on Unemployment Insurance,” which established benefits. In 1925, every ninth able-bodied city dweller was unemployed (for comparison, now, according to official data, “only” every 30th, this is for the country as a whole). They stood at the stock exchange for six months, or even a year, subsisting on day labor such as clearing snow or chopping wood. But by the end of the decade, the revival of industry and the emergence of “socialist construction projects” created a lot of jobs.

The most “attached”
So, on March 13, 1930, the exchange in Rakhmanovsky was closed. History has preserved the name of the “last unemployed Muscovite” who received a referral that day - mechanic Mikhail Shkunov. This date is sometimes called the day of complete victory over unemployment in a particular country.
True, if you read the works of historians, it turns out that by October 9, 1930 (on this day unemployment benefits were abolished), 177 people remained registered on the “closed” Moscow stock exchange (and throughout the entire Union there were 180 thousand unemployed). Even a year later, people continued to besiege the building in Rakhmanovsky. And yet, until April 1991, when the Law on Employment appeared and the concepts of “unemployed”, “benefits” and “labour exchange” came into use again, Soviet workers were probably the most “attached” in the world. And yet, were there really no unemployed people at all? Here's the evidence. In the 1970s, Irina Dupuis worked in the “labor department” of the executive committee. They “stuffed” into enterprises a contingent that was “unattractive” to employers: alcoholics, yesterday’s prisoners, truants expelled from everywhere. However, they also helped respectable citizens who were unable to find a job.
“About 40 people passed through us a month,” recalls Irina Mikhailovna.
Now in the employment department “Lublino” of the Central Economics Center of the South-East Administrative District (considered one of the best in the capital), where Irina Dupuis works as deputy head, so many newcomers come every day...

The science of persuasion
If the legendary locksmith Shkunov had come here, he would have gotten the job first. Because the demand now is mainly for blue-collar professions, and white-collar workers are languishing in queues at employment centers. Lyublino used to be a working-class area, but in recent years, people with mental labor have been buying apartments in new buildings there... “This year people are finding work much faster than in the past,” says department head Irina Zolotnikova. – Since the beginning of the year, 1,151 people have registered (for the same period in 2009 – 1,029). But last year, during this time, only 487 got a job, and this year – 747.
The answer is not only that the Lublin employment department offers literally all methods of finding a job. If you are not computer friendly, read the announcements at the stand; too lazy to sit in line and communicate with employees - point your finger at the terminal buttons; If you don’t know how to write a resume, contact a “resource center” where they will teach you the basics of using the Internet. The department also employs career consultants who can masterfully convince an applicant to change his specialty, take free courses... The department, however, cannot remember any cases of a manager “retraining” as a turner, but they can persuade him to choose a “related” profession or reduce salary requirements it turns out. I’m interested in who is “more flexible” in this regard – men or women.
“The one who is the main breadwinner in the family,” answers Irina Zolotnikova.

"Baranka" for a widower
In front of professional consultant Oksana Burdina sits a hunched man with dull eyes and graying temples. His retired mother answers half the questions instead. Assembly mechanic Sergei's beloved young wife died. At my previous job, everything reminds me of the deceased. We need to change our lives somehow. Oksana talks long and patiently with Sergei, and together they come to the conclusion: monotonous work is simply dangerous for him, he needs dynamic work that will bring new impressions and gradually dispel his grief. “I think you received a driver’s license in the army? There is a vacancy for a loader driver in the database...” 49-year-old Vladimir looked into the department.
He recently got a job as an electrician in a matter of days. The company turned out to be no cakewalk: there was a suspiciously high turnover rate, and overtime was too tight. But Vladimir is glad that there is at least such a job; he was unable to get a job on his own.
“I called from advertisements,” he recalls. “And they barked that there weren’t really any vacancies and hung up.
It seems as if these advertisements are given to “bridle” their workers: they say, remember that others are vying for your place. I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep... And now I’m on a regimen, I’ve lost weight, the arrhythmia has disappeared. A person’s work “holds.”
Today Vladimir has a free day (works every other day), and he came in to do some more digging in the database. Perhaps something better will turn up.
Let's wish him good luck.

Help "VM"
In March this year More than 63 thousand unemployed were registered in the capital, 3 thousand more than at the end of 2009. Nevertheless, city authorities expect that the unemployment rate at the end of 2010 will not exceed the 2009 levels.
The city's job bank now has 167 thousand available places.

Evening Moscow

Socialist industrialization required heroic efforts and great sacrifices, and a certain limitation of public consumption. In the historical conditions created in the mid-20s, naturally, the main economic efforts were aimed at implementing as soon as possible socialist industrialization The Republic of Soviets and ensuring its defense capability against the danger of new imperialist aggression. This meant that a certain historical period had to be spent on creating a powerful heavy industry, which was necessary to ensure the protection of the great achievements of the socialist revolution and as the material basis for the development of the production of consumer goods in the interests of increasingly satisfying the needs of the working people.

But despite all the difficulties, the period 1926-1932. was marked by significant achievements in raising the people's well-being.

1. Elimination of unemployment in the USSR

The very first results of the country's socialist industrialization, as well as the transfer of the scattered, small-scale peasant economy to the rails of large-scale socialist production during the years of the first five-year plan, introduced fundamental socio-economic changes in the situation of working people in cities and villages. The resolution of the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, held in January 1933, noted: “The steady rise of industry and Agriculture in the USSR, two main facts were identified that radically improved financial situation workers:

1. Elimination of unemployment and elimination of uncertainty about the future among workers.

2. Coverage of collective farm construction to almost the entire poor, undermining on this basis the stratification of the peasantry into haves and have-nots and, in connection with this, eliminating impoverishment and pauperism in the countryside.”

The successes of the socialist socialization of all sectors of the national economy during the years of the first five-year plan for the first time in the history of mankind led to the complete and final liberation of working people from exploitation. In the private sector of the national economy in 1932, only 0.8% of wage earners remained, compared to 16.5% in 1927/28. Millions of farm laborers and poor people were forever freed from exhausting labor for meager wages for kulaks.

The historical achievement of the first five-year plan was the complete elimination of such social barbarism and blatant economic waste, inherited from the capitalist past, as mass unemployment.

Unemployment prevented the involvement of a significant part of the workers in the ranks of active builders of socialism. It had a heavy impact on the living standards of workers. The income of an unemployed person was several times less than the income of an employed worker. The presence of a large number of unemployed, and they accounted for about 10-12% of the total number of workers, slowed down the improvement in the financial situation of the working class as a whole. Soviet society was interested in the complete elimination of unemployment and the destruction of the causes that gave rise to it.

The methods, ways and means of combating unemployment in the USSR were radically different from the measures of bourgeois governments. The governments of capitalist countries are trying to regulate the labor market and are forced to apply certain measures to help the unemployed, including the social insurance system in case of unemployment. However, this achieves, at best, only some alleviation of the consequences of this phenomenon, and not the elimination of the causes and conditions that give rise to it, or the elimination of unemployment.

The Soviet government set as its main and ultimate goal not the maintenance of a certain level, but the complete and final elimination of unemployment. Its main source on the eve of the first Five-Year Plan was agrarian overpopulation, inherited from pre-revolutionary times and preserved due to the predominance of small-scale commodity production in the countryside. In the first years of reconstruction, it was not possible to immediately eliminate the agrarian overpopulation of the village. The Soviet state therefore had to, along with measures to employ the unemployed, take measures to mitigate the consequences of unemployment and alleviate the situation of people not employed in production.

Material assistance to those who were temporarily unemployed was provided from the funds of the state, social insurance, trade unions and other public organizations. The main source of financing material assistance to the unemployed was social insurance.

According to the rules for issuing social insurance benefits introduced in 1927, benefits for unemployed skilled workers and specialists were determined at 33% of the average wages in a given area; semi-skilled workers and employees - 25%; unskilled with a certain work experience - 20%. In addition, there were allowances for dependents: 15% of the benefit for one person, 25% for two, 35% for three or more people. The largest benefits were received by the unemployed in large industrial centers. From May 1927, the established period for issuing benefits to the unemployed was extended from 6 to 9 months, and for certain categories of the unemployed, this deadline, with the permission of trade unions, reached 27 and even 36 months.

As a result of these measures, the financial situation of the unemployed has significantly improved, and the scope of their social insurance benefits has expanded. If on January 1, 1926, approximately 300 thousand people received benefits, then on January 1, 1927 - 484 thousand, and on January 1, 1928 - 611.5 thousand people. Overall, in 1928/29, 56% of all unemployed people received unemployment benefits, compared to 20-30% in 1924-1925. The average monthly allowance reached 15 rubles in 1926/27. versus 8 rub. in 1924/25

Material assistance to the unemployed was also provided in the form of providing them with free food and overnight accommodation. For example, in 1928/29, 30.8 thousand people were provided with free meals and overnight accommodation.

Greater financial assistance was provided to the unemployed by trade unions, which created special funds for this purpose. From the trade union fund, 7.5 million rubles were spent in 1924/25 to combat unemployment, and about 30 million rubles in 1928/29.

In the first years of reconstruction, allocations for the fight against unemployment in the state and local budgets: in 1924/25, 14 million rubles were spent for these purposes, in 1927/28 - 23 million rubles.

So, despite the financial difficulties associated with the industrialization of the country, material aid unemployment increased due to various sources - social insurance funds, trade unions, state and local authorities. The total amount of monetary allocations increased from 1924/25 to 1928/29 by 3.3 times, reaching 172.3 million rubles. At the same time, the largest part of the funds came from social insurance (about 120 million rubles in 1928/29).

An effective and efficient measure to combat unemployment was the implementation of public works, the creation of labor, production and trade collectives of the unemployed. The state annually spent 12-15 million rubles on public works organized for the unemployed. In 1924/25-1926/27. On average, 40 thousand people were employed in public works throughout the country annually, in 1927/28 - 23 thousand, and in 1928/29 - 10 thousand people. In 1930, public works began to gradually decline due to increased demand for labor, including for rapidly developing construction, expanding the volume of loading and unloading operations, etc.

Mass organization in 1926-1929 was of great importance for the fight against unemployment. labor, production and trade collectives. State aid was provided to unemployed groups. In 1925/26, more than 4 million rubles were spent on their organization, and in 1927/28 - 8 million rubles. These groups were exempt from taxes and fees for six months from the date of organization. A special bureau was created under the People's Commissariat of Labor to assist production teams of the unemployed in supplying them with raw materials and marketing their products. In the third quarter of 1928/29, 144.8 thousand people were employed in unemployed collectives - 1.7 times more than in 1925. The bulk of them were employed in production (53.5% of all employees in collectives), as well as in work collectives (36.4%); the trading collectives employed relatively few unemployed people. (10.1%) Taking into account the turnover of workers (replacement, according to relevant regulations, had to be carried out on average twice a year), approximately 290 thousand unemployed people received labor assistance in 1928/29.

Collectives of the unemployed helped their members not only financially, but also in terms of maintaining their qualifications and acquiring a new profession. By decision of local authorities, strengthened production teams of the unemployed were transferred to the relevant economic departments as employees of stable enterprises, and thus people received permanent jobs. However, these measures, for all their importance and significance, only weakened the consequences of unemployment, but did not eliminate it.

The five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR determined a wide range of measures to eliminate unemployment. It was assumed that during the five-year period the working population in cities would increase by 3.6-3.9 million people; There were over 1.3 million unemployed people on labor exchanges in 1928, therefore, the task was to involve over 5 million people in production in a short time. The solution to this problem was possible only on the basis of the widespread development of socialist industrialization of the country.

Since the beginning of the first five-year plan, the Communist Party and the Soviet government have directed efforts to quickly eliminate unemployment in the country. The program for the complete eradication of unemployment in the context of the widespread offensive of socialism along the entire front was the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of December 5, 1929. Noting the rapid growth in the number of the working class and the decrease in the rate of growth of unemployment, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks developed practical measures to provide for all industries national economy with a cadre of skilled workers and a systematic reduction in the number of unemployed. Further measures were planned to expand their retraining and retraining, and eliminate pockets of unemployment among women and youth.

The enormous growth of industry, the success of collectivization of agriculture and the intensive development of cultural construction in the period 1929-1932. accompanied by the rapid involvement of more and more workers in production. At the beginning of the five-year plan (October 1928), there were 1364.4 thousand unemployed in the USSR, including. 206.5 thousand industrial workers, about 700 thousand unskilled workers, recent immigrants from the countryside, and 240.3 thousand young people who have not yet worked. The rapid pace of industrialization immediately led to a sharp decrease in unemployment, the volume of which decreased from 1,741 thousand people on April 1, 1929 to 1,081 thousand people on April 1, 1930, 236 thousand on January 1, 1931, and 18 thousand. people on August 1, 1931

The transfer of industrial workers to a 7-hour working day had a significant impact on accelerating this process. The establishment of a shorter working day immediately led to an increase in the number of workers in enterprises and entire industries in the amount of from 5.7 to 26%.

The theoretical position of the classics of Marxism-Leninism that a rational reduction of the normal working day in a socialist society will lead to the elimination of excessive labor of one part of the working population and will become an important means of eliminating unemployment and forced idleness of another part of it, for the first time found real embodiment in the practice of socialist construction in the USSR .

Great importance was attached to the problem of eliminating women's unemployment, which was the most stable and long-lasting. In Tsarist Russia, according to the 1897 census, 55% of all women employed in wage labor served as domestic servants for the ruling classes, 25% worked as laborers for kulaks and landowners, and 17% worked in enterprises and educational and health care institutions. After the victory of the October Revolution, the situation of women changed radically. Already in 1929, 52% of all women employed in the national economy worked at enterprises in various production sectors, 22% in health care and education, and 7% in various government bodies. During 1929-1932 the number of women employed in construction increased almost 6 times, in large industry - 2.1 times, in transport - 2.3 times, in trade - 3.8 times, and throughout the national economy - almost 2 times. As a result of these changes specific gravity women in the total number of people employed in the national economy as a whole increased from 25.3% in 1926 to 27.4% in 1932. Involving the country’s female population in participation in social production and implementing on this basis genuine economic and social, and not Only formal, legal equality of women represented one of the most important revolutionary achievements of socialist construction.

Much attention was paid to measures to eliminate unemployment among young people. The expansion of enrollment in schools of technical education and mass professions significantly contributed to the involvement of the younger generation in social production. Hundreds of thousands of young men and women were attracted to study, and their places were taken by those who still needed work and were registered at labor exchanges. The autumn enrollment of 1930 in FZU schools exhausted the last resources of the labor exchange.

The fundamental problems of cultural construction, which were solved during the years of the first five-year plan, also had an important impact on the elimination of unemployment in our country. The most important task of the late 1920s was the need to eliminate illiteracy and illiteracy among the population, which required a huge number of teachers. The need for teaching staff increased even more due to the introduction of universal compulsory primary education. A wide network of pedagogical courses was created. Enrollment in pedagogical colleges has increased. Graduates of technical schools, and those who studied there were mostly workers and peasants, no longer faced the problem of employment.

The restructuring of health care required an increase in the number of medical personnel. By mid-1929, labor exchanges no longer had reserves of qualified physicians, and the need for them increased every year.

The broad organization of cultural and educational work ensured the elimination of unemployment among cultural and art workers.

As one of the factors in the overall process of reducing unemployment, it should be noted the expansion of training of specialists for the national economy through higher and secondary educational institutions.

Summing up the results of the first five-year plan, the January (1933) joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks emphasized that the elimination of unemployment and the elimination of uncertainty about the future among workers was one of the main factors that radically improved the financial situation of workers.

As a result of the elimination of unemployment, the working people of the Soviet country for the first time in history received a real right to work - the greatest achievement of the first five-year plan. Speaking later, in 1937, to young people, M.I. Kalinin noted: “I consider one of the most important improvements in life to be that today the eternal sword of Damocles does not hang over the worker - the worker is not afraid that tomorrow he will remain unemployed. The young and middle generation of our workers cannot even mentally reproduce the feeling of losing a job that the proletarian experienced in the past. Even the highest categories of workers, who were comparatively better off not only in the size of their earnings, but also in their constancy, even these workers never got rid of the thought of the possibility of losing their earnings every minute.”

The complete elimination of unemployment in our country historically coincided with the deployment of the most severe, deep and prolonged economic crisis in the countries of world capitalism. During this crisis, tens of millions of proletarians in capitalist countries were doomed to long-term unemployment, led a miserable, half-starved existence, lost their qualifications, etc. Until now, mass chronic unemployment either subsides somewhat or flares up with renewed vigor in capitalist countries.

In the USSR, unemployment, buried during the years of the first five-year plan, has forever passed into the realm of legends. All foreign delegations that visited the Soviet Union in those years invariably drew attention to the confidence of all workers of our country in their future. The working people of the capitalist world never cease to admire full employment of the population as the greatest achievement of socialism, as the most important sign of the socialist way of life.

2. Increasing the income level of workers

The first five-year plan was marked by a huge increase in the number of workers and employees employed in the national economy. If in 1913 12.9 million workers and employees were employed in the national economy (within the borders of the USSR until September 17, 1939) and by the beginning of the first five-year plan their number was the same, then in 1932 the army of labor in enterprises and in institutions almost doubled, reaching 24.2 million people (including members of fishing cooperative artels). Thus, during these years there was a large influx of workers, mainly from the countryside, who within a short time joined the ranks of workers in non-agricultural sectors.

This was accompanied by a significant improvement in the financial situation of workers, which was reflected in an increase in the level of income and consumption of a huge mass - 8 million workers who joined the ranks of workers in cities and towns. They immediately rose, together with their family members (over 10 million people in total), from a low standard of living in the countryside to the standard of living of industrial workers.

According to the first five-year plan, it was planned to increase the real wages of industrial workers by 71%. Then the share of working class income in the total national income increased from 32.1 to 37%. The income of the agricultural population was supposed to increase by 67% by the end of the five-year plan, with their share in the entire national income decreasing from 49.8 to 42.5%.

The first five-year plan was characterized by high growth rates of national income; for 1929-1932 they amounted to 16.2% on average per year. At the same time, along with the rapid increase in the accumulation fund (its share in 1932 rose to 26.9%), the rate of expansion of the general fund of personal and public consumption also significantly accelerated, which amounted to at least 12.5% ​​on average per year; per capita they increased annually by 10.5%. This reflected the essence of socialist industrialization: even during the years of intense efforts aimed at creating heavy industry, high absolute growth rates of the general consumption fund were ensured.

As a result of profound economic transformations and changes in the class structure of society, national income began to virtually belong entirely to the working people and be used in their interests. If in 1928 the share of capitalist elements still accounted for 8.1% of national income, then in 1932 their share decreased to 0.5%. At the same time, thanks to the elimination of unemployment and the widespread involvement of the female population in social production, the share of the total income of workers and employees increased very significantly - from 35.6% in 1928 to 55.7% in 1932, collective farmers - from 1 .3 to 27.3%, cooperative artisans and handicraftsmen - from 1.4 to 2.9%.

The most important indicators Improvements in the financial situation of workers resulted from an increase in the total wage fund of workers and employees, as well as the labor income of collective farmers from the public economy. The total number of workers and employees during the first five-year plan almost doubled.

The first five-year plan for increasing the number of workers and employees was exceeded by 44.7%. The process of quantitative growth of the working class in the USSR was accompanied by significant qualitative changes in its composition. The share of workers and employees employed in industry, construction, transport and communications has grown over the years from 48.5% to 54%. The share of workers and employees employed on state farms and MTS increased from 3% to 10.4%.

Shifts in the total number of workers and employees and its sectoral structure determined significant changes in the social composition of the country's population. With a general increase in the total population from 154.3 million people on January 1, 1929 to 165.7 million on January 1, 1933, the share of workers and employees in the working population increased from 19.7% in 1928 to 30.8% in 1932

During 1926-1932. In the USSR there was a steady increase in wages of workers and employees. The real wages of workers, taking into account the costs of social insurance and deductions from profits to the fund for improving their living conditions, by 1930 amounted to 167% in relation to the pre-war level.

The average annual wage of workers and employees throughout the national economy increased from 571 rubles. in 1925/26 to 703 rubles. in 1928 and 1427 rubles. in 1932. At the same time, in large industry it increased by 2 times, in construction - by 1.7, in transport - by 2.1, in agriculture - almost 4, in public communications - by 2.2, in trade and public catering - 1.9 times. Average annual wages also increased very significantly in the non-production sector: in healthcare - by 2.3 times, in public utilities - by 2.4 times, for domestic workers and casual workers - by 3.8 times.

Wages increased especially rapidly during the First Five-Year Plan. The rate of increase in wages in individual industries during this period was determined by the need to identify leading industries and professions that were of paramount importance for the development of the national economy. Accordingly, with an average increase of 64.3% across the entire qualifying industry, the largest increase in average monthly wages occurred in the coal industry - by 93.0% and in ferrous metallurgy - by 74.9%. Characteristic in this regard are the data for 1932 alone, reflecting the results of the restructuring of wages in connection with the elimination of equalization. Compared to 1931, average monthly wages increased in the coal industry by 31%, in ferrous metallurgy - by 28.5, in mechanical engineering - by 18.2, in the chemical industry - by 22.8, in cotton - by 22.6% .

An increase in wages due to an increase in the level of qualifications is indicated by data on the distribution of workers by earnings for 1926-1930. The share of low-paid groups of workers with earnings of up to 40 rubles. per month by 1930 decreased by 4 times, and those receiving from 40 to 60 rubles. decreased by 1/3 - from 31.2 to 20.9%. At the same time, the share of highly paid groups with earnings from 100 to 150 rubles. increased almost 3 times, and those receiving from 150 rubles. per month and above - 5 times.

Significant changes during this period occurred in the ratio of wage levels for workers, office workers and engineering staff. If during the recovery period the average annual wage of employees and engineers was 46% of the level of workers' compensation, then in 1926 it exceeded this level by 40-50%, and in 1932 the gap increased to 200%. The wages of employees in industry were 25-30% higher, and those of junior service personnel were 25-40% lower than the average annual wage of workers.

During the years of the first five-year plan, earnings in agriculture increased 3 times. The wages of educators increased 2.4 times, the level of which at the beginning of the Five-Year Plan lagged behind the average for the national economy. Overall, the five-year plan to increase wages was exceeded by 44%.

The increase in wages and the growth in the total number of workers and employees led to a significant expansion of annual wage funds. With the number of workers doubling, the wage fund in the national economy (excluding payments to members of fishing cooperative artels) increased from 8.16 billion rubles. in 1928 to 32.74 billion rubles. in 1932, or 4 times. The annual wage fund increased especially rapidly in construction, agriculture and forestry- 6-6.5 times.

The situation of workers and employees has also improved due to the widespread employment of able-bodied family members, mainly women. Women's labor was paid on the same basis and at the same prices as men. The earnings of teenage students also increased during these years, amounting to 34% of the average monthly wage of an adult worker, which was also a known help for the budgets of working families.

For 1926-1932 the budgets of working families grew at a much faster rate than the average monthly and average annual wages. For example, the average wage of factory workers in 1927 increased by 9% compared to 1926, and family budget- by 10.6%. Subsequently, during the years of the first five-year plan, the dynamics of the budgets of working families was strongly influenced by a significant increase in the number of earning family members. For a typical worker's family of four, in the last quarter of 1928 there were 1.2, and at the end of 1931, 1.5 earning family members. This means that over three years the average ratio of working members in working families increased by 25.2%. It is characteristic that at the same time, individual average monthly wages for the circle of surveyed budgets of factory working families increased by 28.2% and that, as a result of the interaction of these two factors, family budgets increased (in nominal terms) by 60.5%.

An increase in the number of working members in a family led to a change in the ratio between the shares of wages of the head of the family and the rest of its members. In 1932, the salary of the head of the family accounted for a little more than 2/3 of the budget revenue, and the earnings of other family members accounted for almost 1/5. The rest of the income budget (approximately 13.4%) was formed on the basis of various sources: insurance benefits, personal farming, outside work, etc.

The improvement in the financial situation of workers and employees in the national economy also occurred due to the expansion of public consumption funds. One of the features of the socialist economic system and its important advantage over capitalism was the fact that in the very first years of socialist industrialization in our country, the material support of workers and employees was not limited to wages, and peasants - to their income from agriculture. An increasing part of material needs was satisfied through a very significant expansion of the share of national income that is concentrated in public consumption funds.

Social insurance played a huge role in improving the financial situation of workers during the First Five-Year Plan. During the period from 1925/26 to 1932, the number of insured people grew from 8.1 million people to 20.7 million people, or up to 98.6% of all workers and employees in the national economy. Insurance funds at the same time, they increased from 703.4 million to 5534 million rubles, i.e. 7.8 times.

The general social insurance fund increased from 1049 million in 1927/28 to 4401 million rubles. in 1932, i.e. more than 4 times, and the planned five-year plan was exceeded by 2.3 times.

Social Security Budgets for 1931 and 1932 reflect the transition to a whole system of measures to improve the material and everyday services of proletarian industrial personnel. Yes, according to the budget. In 1932, the insurance funds of the USSR allocated 87.5 million rubles. for the organization of a nursery and 24 million rubles. - kindergartens for children of workers in leading sectors of the national economy; 15 million rubles. - for meals for schoolchildren, 22 million rubles. - for anti-epidemic and anti-malarial measures; 25 million rub. - for tourism and 2.5 million rubles. - for the development of physical education among working youth, 37 million rubles. - for the construction of holiday homes of all types and sanatoriums, 3 million rubles. - to expand the existing network of dairy kitchens, 20 million rubles. - for the organization of dietary nutrition, 111.5 million rubles. - on free service workers and employees of holiday homes and sanatoriums, 750 million rubles. - for housing construction for workers. All of the above appropriations, with the exception of expenses for housing construction, were introduced for the first time.

Accounted expenses from general public consumption funds, without payment for regular vacations, per capita of the working population in the industry increased from 87.49 rubles. in 1927/28 to 172.31 rubles. in 1932. These expenses as a percentage of the corresponding amount of wages, including payment for regular vacations, increased over the same years from 25.9 to 30.6%. When paying for regular vacations was included in public consumption income, the same indicators were equal to 32.6 and 37.5%, respectively. What a significant role in improving the material and socio-cultural situation of the working class was played by public consumption funds is shown by the fact that, according to the Central Statistical Office of the USSR, which covered 800 thousand pre-revolutionary factory workers, the expenses of entrepreneurs for medical care, shelters, almshouses, schools and others institutions in 1913 amounted to 12 rubles. per worker, or only 4.5% of average wages. In general, spending on education per capita increased from 1.73 rubles. in 1913 to 38.64 rubles. in 1932, for health care - from 0.69 to 12.69 rubles, for labor protection and social security - from 0.72 to 10.40 rubles, and in general - from 3.14 to 61.73 rubles .

At the same time, the above calculations significantly understate the real growth of resources allocated to increase public consumption funds, since they do not include such large items as costs of housing construction, capital investments in the construction of new sanatoriums and holiday homes, capital investments in communal improvement of the housing stock workers, etc. As for the many millions of workers - recent immigrants from the countryside, before moving to work in industrial centers, they did not have access to the social insurance system and many other types of public consumption. Therefore, for these workers, the increase in expenditures on the public consumption fund was much greater than for industrial workers who already belonged to this category in 1928.

During the first five-year plan there was some growth retail prices. However, the rise in prices was eventually offset by an increase in average wages, including taking into account the improvement of workers’ qualifications, involvement in social work women and youth, eliminating unemployment. As a result, the average real annual wages of workers and employees in the entire national economy per family, including the increase in public consumption funds, increased noticeably by 1932.

These are the results of the increase in real incomes of families of workers and employees in the national economy as a whole in the first years of socialist industrialization. They show the inconsistency of the assertions of bourgeois economists and Sovietologists that a significant increase in the rate of social accumulation and the rapid growth of heavy industry during the years of the first five-year plan were allegedly achieved due to a decrease in real incomes and a reduction in consumption of the working class.

Along with the improvement in the financial situation of the working class, there was a noticeable increase in the well-being of the peasant population. The decisive factor that contributed to the rise in the financial situation of the broadest peasant masses was the collectivization of the countryside. The transition to collective farm labor radically changed the conditions of existence of the poor and middle peasant masses. Poor families that joined collective farms increased their incomes to the level of the middle peasants. The same peasants who were involved in industry increased their standard of living by 2.5-3 times.

Mass collectivization of agriculture, the elimination of unemployment in the industrial centers of the country and an almost doubling of the number of employed workers and employees in the national economy led to a significant reduction in agricultural overpopulation. In the mid-1920s (1925/26), agricultural overpopulation was estimated at 9 million people. During the years of the first five-year plan, as noted, 8.5 million people moved from villages to industrial centers, and, together with family members, over 10 million people.

The collectivization of agriculture meant that the millions of poor and weak middle peasants, who had hitherto lived in poverty, became wealthy people on collective farms. The resolution of the III Session of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR in January 1933 emphasized that “No less than 6 million poor horseless farms, covering about 20 million peasants and peasant women, who had previously been mercilessly exploited by the kulaks and were not given the opportunity to rise, have now joined collective farms and become how collective farmers can use machines, horses and tractors, which are inaccessible not only to the poor peasants, but also to the middle peasants’ individual farms.”

The incomes of collective farmers grew. So, for example, in the collective farms of the North Caucasus region in 1930, the gross income per collective farm yard was 416 rubles, in 1931 - 559 rubles, i.e. 34% more; in the Middle Volga region, the gross income per collective farm household was: in the Bashmakovsky district (according to 17 collective farms) - 295 and 403 rubles, or increased by 36%, in the Ulyanovsk region - 413 and 543, or increased by 31%; in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory in the Shabalinsky district (data for 361 collective farms) - 441 and 538 rubles.

The growth in cash income per collective farm household was accompanied by a significant increase in the part of public income that was distributed among workdays. In most territories and regions, the income received by collective farmers from public farming increased in 1931 by 20-25% compared to the previous year.

The actual income of the collective farmer consisted of two sources - from earnings on the collective farm (from the public farm) and from personal plots. The increase in the material well-being of collective farmers occurred on the basis of strengthening the collective farm as a socialist enterprise, on the basis of the growth, first of all, of the public economy, the income from which subsequently increasingly prevailed among the collective farmers over the income from subsidiary farming.

In 1932, in many collective farms, where the organization of labor and the distribution of income according to labor was well organized, payment for a workday ensured an increase in the material well-being of the collective farm family. The Soviet state provided assistance and assistance to collective farmers who did not have cows or small livestock in purchasing and raising young animals to meet their personal needs.

As a result of the first five-year plan, the material prerequisites were created for the future growth of agriculture and the welfare of the collective farm peasantry. The 17th Party Congress noted that the victory of the collective farm system “creates unprecedentedly favorable conditions for the rapid rise in the material level of the collective farm and peasant masses and for the achievement of a cultural and prosperous life for collective farmers and makes the pace of this rise directly dependent on the organization and labor productivity of the collective farmers themselves.”

3. Increasing the level and improving the structure of consumption

Direct evidence of the improvement in the financial situation of the broadest strata of urban and rural workers during the years of the First Five-Year Plan is provided by the data on the growth in the production of industrial consumer goods per capita: leather and rubber shoes - 1.4 and 1.66 times; hosiery - 2.86 times; underwear and outerwear - 3.68 and 7.78 times; bicycles and household watches of all types - 10.8 and 3.72 times; canned food and confectionery - 5.2 and 4.8 times; in general, industrial consumer products (group “B”) - 1.45 times.

During the years of the first five-year plan, an average annual increase in the volume of production of consumer goods occurred, unprecedented for capitalist countries: in industry - by 11.8% and per capita - by 9.8%. In connection with the liquidation of the exploiting classes, the increasing volume of industrial consumer products was completely directed towards increasing the level of consumption of the working people. Thus, achieving the pre-revolutionary level of production of fabrics and shoes meant significantly better provision of the needs of the working people. In 1926/27, when the average per capita production of cotton fabrics reached 14 linear meters. m, the results of a survey of the budgets of working families showed that they acquired 15.51 linear meters. m. When the production of leather shoes in the country was less than 0.4 pairs per capita, there were 1.32 pairs per member of a working family. For 1926-1928 consumption of men's outerwear increased by 18.8%, men's underwear - by 14.4, women's dresses - by 12 and underwear - by 34.6, children's dresses - by 7.6, leather shoes - by 2.8%, etc. etc. The purchase of household items by workers has also increased: furniture, bedding, dishes and household utensils.

As a result of structural changes associated with the intensive development of new industries for the production of industrial consumer products, the range of goods consumed by urban and rural workers expanded.

Although the total production of textile fabrics, due to the need to reduce the import of raw materials and expand our own raw material base, remained at the same level, and per capita during the years of the first five-year plan decreased by 7.7%, there was still a rapid increase in the production of underwear and outerwear , hosiery contributed to maintaining the overall level of textile consumption while increasing its variety. A significant improvement in meeting the needs of the population is evidenced by an increase in per capita production of leather shoes by 39.5% and rubber shoes by 66%. Mass production of watches, radios, bicycles, canned goods, and confectionery was launched, and the foundations were laid for a radical transformation of the consumption structure.

The sale of consumer products to the population through the state and cooperative trading network in its total real volume increased from 1928 to 1932 by 34%, but even this very significant growth lagged behind the increased purchasing power of the working population. In the first years of the Five-Year Plan, private trade still existed, and in the current situation, speculators inflated prices for consumer goods.

Under these conditions, to ensure normal, uninterrupted supply to the main strata of workers in the cities, rationed supplies using ration cards were introduced. This mitigated the consequences that arose due to the lag in production volumes of consumer goods from the growing effective demand for them, and also limited the field of activity of private traders. Supply standards based on cards and orders guaranteed workers the acquisition of the required minimum of consumer goods at a relatively low prices and in a greater amount than the resources available on average per capita.

The level of consumption of basic food products during the years of the first five-year plan developed less favorably than was the case with regard to industrial consumer products. But with the increase in the production of agricultural products, as well as the development of the food industry, the nutrition of the people significantly improved. Consumption of the most important food products per capita in the cities of the USSR in these years is characterized by the following data (kg per capita):

1927/28	1931	1931,% compared to 1927/28
Flour	143,2	159,0	111,0
Cereals and pasta	13,5	19,4	143,7
Potato	88,0	139,0	158,0
Vegetables	40,3	70,4	174,7
Sugar and sweets	17,9	22,9	127,9
Vegetable oil and margarine	3,3	3,8	115,1
Fish	8,6	22,0	255,8
Milk and dairy products (in terms of milk)	158,3	117,6	74,3

The consumption of vegetables, potatoes, cereals, pasta, flour, sugar, confectionery, vegetable oil and margarine has increased significantly. An increase in fish consumption made it possible, to a certain extent, to compensate for the deficiency of animal proteins in the diet that resulted from a reduction in the consumption of milk and dairy products, as well as a decrease (for well-known reasons indicated in Chapter 12) in the volume of production and, accordingly, meat resources.

The food situation gradually improved, and from the second quarter of 1932, the rationed supply of fish, confectionery, eggs, vegetables, milk, cheese and some other goods to the population was abolished. The sale of only such essential products as bread, cereals, meat, herring, fats and sugar was maintained according to established standards. In the last year of the five-year plan, market funds for food products increased. In general, they increased by 30% compared to 1928, including: flour - by 38.1%, meat and meat products - by 13.9%, fish products - by 83.8%, confectionery - by 6. 5 times, with a decrease in sugar - by 43.4%, tea - by 33.3%, animal oil - by 25.5%.

To improve the supply of food products to working families, special labor supply departments (WSUs) were organized at the plant managements of the largest industrial enterprises, their own food bases were created - individual state farms were attached to the plants, and decentralized procurement of agricultural products was widely deployed.

The improvement of the food supply of cities was facilitated by the collective farm trade that developed from the beginning of 1932. In 1932, cooperative and state organizations alone purchased 120 thousand tons of meat, 130 thousand tons of milk and dairy products, 360 thousand tons of potatoes and other products from collective farms and collective farm markets.

The sale of food products through public catering enterprises increased especially rapidly, which during this period were the most important factor in improving the financial situation of the working population. Receiving ready-made food in enterprise canteens made it possible, in addition to card purchases, to purchase food products at fixed prices.

With an increase in retail turnover of food products of state and cooperative trade, including catering, in 1932 compared to 1928, 4 times in prices of the corresponding years, the turnover in public catering increased almost 14 times. Public catering also expanded significantly in rural areas; the volume of its trade turnover in the village increased over the same period by more than 13 times.

Until 1927, public catering occupied an insignificant share in the expenditure budget of a working family (0.4-0.7%). For 1928-1930 it increased almost 5 times (from 0.7 to 3.3%). Even more revealing are the data characterizing the share of public catering in total food costs, which in the first quarter of 1931 reached 10%. When considering data on the development of public catering in value terms, it is necessary to take into account that prices for public catering products were significantly lower than in cooperatives and in the market, where the worker purchased a certain share of the products. In addition to savings in money, due to the expansion of public catering, there were significant savings in time. According to the calculations of academician S. G. Strumilina, “a kitchen factory spends 12 times less labor on the production of one lunch than home production; a bakery baking 16 kg of bread is 25 times less, and the water supply for delivering one bucket of water is 360 times less than the time it would take at home... Serving lunches, including not only cooking, but also the least mechanized work in canteens , six times more economical in terms of labor costs in public catering.”

During the first five-year plan there was a rapid expansion of public catering. For example, in Moscow, public catering coverage for urban residents was provided for the relevant population groups (as a percentage of the total):

1929	1930	1931
Industrial workers	33	50	94
Construction workers	80	90	90
Other categories of workers	26	37	81
Students	75	80	84
Pupils	15	45	76

For 1929-1931 the number of meals served per day increased from 370 thousand to 1426 thousand, i.e. 4 times. The development of public catering in Leningrad proceeded at the same pace. On January 1, 1930, public catering covered 12% of the city's total population, and on October 1, 1932 - 53.7%.

The resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated August 19, 1931 noted that during the years of the revolution, public catering had achieved significant development: 5 million workers and 3.8 million other workers in cities were covered by public catering; 3 million children in schools are served hot breakfasts, the catering network has reached 13,400 units. The Central Committee planned to bring it in 1932-1933. the number of workers served by public catering is up to 25 million people and to achieve the supply of hot breakfasts to all schoolchildren and children served by preschool institutions.

The following data gives an idea of ​​how the public catering network was deployed:

1928	1929	1932
Number of catering establishments	1856	-	17756
Including factory kitchens	-	3	166
Covered by public catering, thousand people.	1250	-	13520
Cost of catering products, million rubles.	11	-	46070
Number of employees in public catering establishments, thousand people.	-	106	513

In 1932, public catering was used by over 40% of the total urban population, more than 70% of workers, about 90% of workers in leading industries, and 100% of workers in new buildings.

Most full view the change in the general level of consumption of workers and employees for the entire period, which reflects all qualitative and quantitative changes in the volume of consumption of all goods and services according to budget surveys, is given by the so-called index of physical volume of consumption. This index, calculated as a percentage of the previous year, showed the following changes in the level of consumption of working families: 1926 +1.4; 1927 +3.8; 1928, + 3.5; 1929/30 +4.9; 1931 +2.2. The physical volume of consumption of working families who have recently moved to the city, as already noted, has increased to a much greater extent.

The most important element in raising the standard of living of workers is housing conditions. Housing satisfies one of the main needs of people, plays an important role in their lives, and has a significant impact on maintaining their health and performance. In the works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, a program was outlined for the elimination of capitalist homeownership and the redistribution of housing space in favor of the working people.

In the first years after the October Revolution, large homeowners were expropriated. In Moscow and Leningrad, about 4/5 of the houses were converted into public property, in large cities (with a population of over 200 thousand) - 1/3, and in the country as a whole - 18% of all urban buildings. These were the largest and capital houses, their area was about half of the total living space in the cities, and the total cost was 74.6% of the cost of the entire housing stock of the cities of Tsarist Russia. The proletarian state carried out a massive resettlement of workers from the city outskirts to the central, comfortable areas, from basements and shacks to the apartments of the bourgeoisie. An editorial in the Pravda newspaper in July 1931 noted that “Moscow alone resettled 500 thousand workers from basement and semi-basement shacks into comfortable apartments during the years of the revolution.”

Providing publicly owned living space for the use of workers serves as one of the forms of distribution and redistribution of national wealth. The conditions for the provision of living space by the socialist state created additional real income for workers. By resolution of the Central Executive Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of January 4, 1928, it was introduced one system collection of rent throughout the country, which in principle still remains. For workers and employees highest rate was set at 1.32 rubles. for 1 m? for persons of liberal professions, artisans and handicraftsmen - 1.98 rubles, military personnel - 8 kopecks. Multi-family families received a discount from 5 to 15%, pensioners - a 50% discount. Discounts were also provided to students living on a scholarship. No fees were charged for auxiliary rooms (kitchens, corridors, baths, etc.), and the rent rate was reduced for rooms that did not meet normal conditions.

Budget surveys of working families, 1926-1931. show that with the improvement of housing conditions during this period, there was a significant decrease in the share of expenses for apartments in working budgets: in 1931 they amounted to 5.8% versus 6.7% in 1926. Over the same years, there was a decrease in the share of expenses for fuel and lighting from 6.8 to 2.6%, i.e. almost 2.5 times. In general, all housing costs decreased from 13.5% in 1926 to 8.4% in 1931. In pre-revolutionary Russia, housing costs in workers' budgets amounted to 18-20%. The net gain of workers under Soviet conditions was no less than 8-10% of the total wage fund, and in 1931-1932. this amount was 2.5-3 billion rubles.

According to the 1926 census living space per capita of factory workers averaged 4.91 m? and employees - 6.96 m?, and the average area per capita of the entire urban population was 5.86 m? . For 1926-1929 There have been significant changes in the provision of living space for working families.

The living conditions of the working population in the most important industries, the situation of which in pre-revolutionary Russia was especially difficult, have significantly improved. For example, in St. Petersburg, with an average per capita living space of 9 m? in the families of textile workers there was only 3.1 m?. Among the textile workers of the Vladimir province. in 1898, living space per capita was over 4 m? only 6.1% of families had it, and in 1929 - 64.6%.

The workers' living conditions improved both quantitatively and qualitatively. Data from budget surveys indicate not only a steady increase in the volume of living space for working families, but also an improvement in their public services - central heating, running water and electric lighting. Already by 1925, the number of workers living in basements and damp rooms had sharply decreased. If before the revolution in St. Petersburg 16.7% of workers' families lived in basements, and in Baku - 23-26% and the same number lived in attics and damp rooms, then in 1925 only 0.8% lived in basements, and attics - 0.2% of workers' families.

During the first five-year plan, housing construction began to expand, as evidenced by data on government investment and the commissioning of new residential buildings.

So, in four years only due to public funds over 32 million m2 were built and put into operation? new living space. In addition, about 6 million m? new residential space was built by individual developers and various cooperative organizations. The largest increase in housing construction dates back to 1932. The June Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1932) outlined a program of practical measures to reduce housing need in cities. In addition to state construction, which was carried out centrally in large cities and industrial centers, to expand housing construction, housing construction cooperation was created, which recruited mainly workers. Thus, in 1930, working families accounted for 62-77% of those moving into cooperative houses. Cooperative construction was carried out mainly with funds coming from funds for improving the living conditions of workers, of which from 70 to 80% were allocated for housing construction.

Total for 1926-1932 About 40 million m² were built in cities, i.e. housing stock increased by 18.5%. Such a pace of new housing construction has not been seen in any capitalist country. As noted at the IX Congress of Trade Unions of the USSR, only from 1928 to 1931, 3 million workers were provided with new housing space; in 1932 it was planned to provide for another 3 million people.

During the first five-year plan, the technical reconstruction of the national economy of the USSR was accompanied by a significant improvement in working conditions. This primarily includes a significant reduction in the working week. The average working day from 9.9 hours in 1913 was increased to 7.8 hours in 1928 and 6.98 hours in 1932. In hazardous and underground work and for teenagers from 16 to 18 years old (child labor in The USSR was categorically prohibited) a 6-hour working day was established, and for certain groups of workers - a 4-5 hour working day. Paid vacations increased to an average of 15.1 working days. The USSR became the country with the shortest working day in the world. Every year, allocations for special events to improve working conditions and improve safety regulations in the most important sectors of the national economy increased. Over four years, labor protection costs amounted to 452.9 million rubles. against 332.7 million rubles planned according to the five-year plan.

As a result of mechanization in new factories, the most difficult work and dangerous technological processes were simplified General terms labor and significantly reduced the number of accidents at work. In 1932, compared to 1929, in the coal industry the decrease was 44.6%, in ferrous metallurgy - 38, in basic chemical plants - 31.4, in mechanical engineering - 39.7, in the sawmill and plywood industry - 33 ,8% .

Improvements in workers' living conditions and labor protection during the First Five-Year Plan led to a decrease in the overall incidence of workers and especially occupational diseases. During these years, the duration of illnesses by the average number of days decreased by 14.1, and the total number of illnesses by 23.5%. Significantly improved services to the working population medical care. Number of health centers serving large enterprises, increased during the years of the first five-year plan from 1580 to 5672, and throughout the national economy - from 1942 to 6532. The sanatorium and resort network for workers has increased. In 1928, 511 thousand people rested in holiday homes and sanatoriums using social insurance vouchers, and in 1932 - over one million.

As a result of improving the living conditions of workers in the USSR, the mortality rate of the population has significantly decreased and the average life expectancy has increased. In 1931, compared to 1913, the mortality rate of the population decreased by 31.5%, and in the main proletarian centers of the country even more: in Moscow - by 40.8%, Ivanovo - 41.8, Yaroslavl - 52.8, Perm - 38.5%. The population of the Soviet Union increased from 147 million people in 1926 to 165.7 million in 1932, or by 18.7 million people (12.7%).

After the victory of the October Socialist Revolution, the welfare of workers increased as the socialist economy developed and strengthened. As a result of the first period of socialist industrialization, not only did the pace of expanded socialist reproduction significantly accelerate and the country’s national income increased accordingly, not only did the accumulated part of the national income increase, but also the part of it that goes into the personal and social consumption of workers, forming the total consumption fund of a socialist society.

Collective consumption funds. On the standard of living of the proletariat of the USSR, p. 26.

"Budgets of workers and employees in 1922-1927", vol. 1. M., Central Statistical Office of the USSR, 1929, p. 56.

A. Vvedensky. Housing situation of the factory proletariat of the USSR, p. 15.

“Labor Issues”, 1930, No. 9, p. 37.

“Building the foundation of a socialist economy in the USSR. 1926-1932", page 561.

N. Shvernik. Trade unions of the USSR on the eve of the second five-year plan. M., Profizdat, 1932, p. 73.

“Results of the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR,” pp. 182-187.

The issue of eliminating unemployment in the Soviet Union has long attracted the attention of Soviet historians 1 . In the 20s and 30s, the first works appeared in which, on the basis of statistical materials from the State Planning Committee, the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR and other institutions, such aspects of this problem as the size of unemployment in our country and the organization of the fight against it were considered 2 . The problem of unemployment in the USSR, studied mainly in two aspects - the causes of unemployment and measures to help the unemployed - was reflected in works devoted to the history of the working class 3. IN economically This problem is covered in the article by M. P. Dovzhenko 4. However, the very process of eliminating unemployment in the USSR remains unstudied.

Unemployment in the USSR is a difficult legacy received by the Soviet Republic from pre-revolutionary Russia. After the end of the civil war and intervention, unemployment in the country reached significant levels. But in the USSR it was temporary and had nothing to do with unemployment in capitalist countries, which was the result of the action of the general law of capitalist accumulation. In 1917 - 1918 Due to the collapse of the national economy and the cessation of work at a number of large industrial enterprises, the army of unemployed was mainly composed of regular workers. Revolutionary transformations in the countryside created conditions for the flow of population from cities to the countryside; This was facilitated by the general difficult conditions of urban life during the years of the civil war and intervention. Therefore, already at the beginning of 1918, most of the unemployed skilled workers moved to the countryside. After the end of the civil war, the country had a significant number of people not employed in production. In the first years of NEP, as a result of syn-

1 For the historiography of the issue, see: A. S. Sycheva. On the issue of unemployment in the USSR. "Scientific Notes" of the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute named after N.K. Krupskaya. Department of History of the USSR. Vol. 7. T. CXXVII. 1963.

2 Ya. Gindin. New forms of work of labor exchanges. M. 1924; him. Regulation of the labor market and the fight against unemployment. M. 1926; him. Unemployment and labor intermediation. M. 1928; him. Combating unemployment and hiring labor. M. 1928; L. E. Mints. Labor and unemployment in Russia (1921 - 1924). M. 1924; him. Agrarian overpopulation and the labor market in the USSR. M. -L. 1929; S. Strumilin. Social problems of the five-year plan 1928/29 - 1932/33. M. -L. 1929; B. Marcus. Labor in a socialist society. M. 1939, etc.

3 A. A. Matyugin. The working class of the USSR during the years of restoration of the national economy. M. 1962; L. S. Rogachevskaya. From the history of the working class of the USSR in the first years of industrialization. M. -L. 1959; A. A. Baishin. Historical stages of the formation of the working class in Soviet Kazakhstan. Alma-Ata. 1958; B. M. Mitupov. Development of industry and formation of the working class in the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1923 - 1937). Ulan-Ude. 1958, etc.

4 M. P. Dovzhenko. Elimination of unemployment and implementation of the right to work in the USSR. "Scientific Notes" of the Moscow State Economic Institute. Vol. 10. 1958.

rationing, transition to self-financing, closure of unprofitable enterprises, transfer of some of them to private individuals, the number of unemployed has increased. Unemployment increased among employees, teachers and doctors due to the reduction of the administrative apparatus, the network of schools and hospitals in 1921 - 1923, due to the material difficulties experienced by the country.

As of November 1, 1922, industrial workers made up 21.8% of the unemployed, unskilled workers - 19.2%, and the “intellectual labor group” (which included the intelligentsia, institutional employees, etc.) - 45.9% 5 . In 1926 - 1929 The composition of the unemployed has changed dramatically. In 1926, the group of unskilled workers accounted for 42% of the total number of unemployed, on October 1, 1929 - 58.9%, on April 1, 1930 - 62.3% 6 . The share of industrial workers during the years under review was, according to average annual data, about 15% of the unemployed; moreover, these were mostly low-skilled workers and unskilled workers. For example, among the total mass of unemployed industrial workers, 80% were unskilled railway workers, and 50% were unskilled chemists 7 . Workers employed in temporary jobs were accepted into trade union membership. Subsequently, when registering at labor exchanges when filling out the qualification column, they considered themselves qualified workers, despite the fact that they worked as unskilled laborers. The latter joined the group of unskilled workers among the unemployed, although in reality they had a certain qualification. The natural growth of the urban population in the presence of unemployment became a source of its replenishment. Thus, according to the information of the People's Commissariat of the USSR, youth from 14 to 23 years old, not employed in production, there were 2029 thousand people in cities in 1923, in 1924 - 2127.1 thousand, in 1925 - 2245, 3 thousand 8. The share of women among the unemployed as of October 1, 1929 was 51.8% 9 . Women and teenagers, as a rule, did not have labor qualifications. During this period, unemployment was of a pronounced “unskilled” nature: the unemployed were mainly unskilled workers.

Over time, the financial situation of the working class began to improve from year to year and was generally higher than that of the bulk of the peasantry. Thus, according to the USSR State Planning Committee, the income per farmer in 1926/27 averaged 205 rubles, and for a worker - 710 rubles 10 . The expansion of socialist construction and the growth of material well-being increased the pull of the peasant poor into the city. If in 1921 - 1925. there was not a large outflow of peasants from the village, then in 1926 - 1929. There was a massive exodus of poor peasants to the city. In 1924/25, 2,788 thousand moved from the village to the city, in 1926/27 - 3,590 thousand, and in 1929 - 4,200 thousand people 11.

During the period of completion of the restoration of the national economy and the transition to its reconstruction, industry was not yet able to absorb all those who needed work. In 1921 - 1925 There could be no question of completely eliminating unemployment. The main task during the period of restoration of the national economy was to preserve the main cadre of workers, to protect them from declassification and petty-bourgeois influence, which was especially strongly felt in the first years of the NEP.

5 L. E. Mints. Labor and unemployment in Russia (1921 - 1924), p. 50, table. 6.

6 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5451, op. 24, units hr. 278, l. 4; "Propagandist", 1930, N 10, p. 90

7 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5474, op. 8, units hr. 293, l. 142; f. 5470, op. 11, units hr. 116, l. 39.

8 Ibid., f. 382, op. 4, units hr. 1604, l. 52.

9 Ibid., f. 5515, op. 15, units hr. 147, l. 49.

10 Ibid., f. 5451, op. 11, units hr. 357, l. 1.

11 Ibid., f. 382, op. 4, units hr. 1604, l. 48; f. 5515, op. 24, units hr. 232, l. 371.

With the introduction of the new economic policy, the labor market became the regulator of labor distribution. But this was not a market operating on the principles of capitalism. The supply of labor was not its sale, and the demand was not its purchase. The Soviet Labor Code of 1922 guaranteed workers a minimum wage, a strictly fixed working day (6 - 8 hours), annual holidays. All attempts to arbitrarily resolve issues of dismissal of workers were suppressed. Workers were protected by the proletarian state, which took control of the labor market; a system of labor exchanges 12 was created, which were government bodies. Private individuals were prohibited from forming such organizations. Regulation of the labor market in 1921 - 1925. meant, first of all, providing a certain type of occupation for career workers and demobilized Red Army soldiers. The activities of labor exchanges in registering the unemployed were subject to systematic inspection. For example, in 1924, on the basis of a circular from the Central Committee of the RCP(b), the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR, all exchanges were cleaned. Those registered with the exchanges were members of trade unions, skilled workers with at least three years of experience, Soviet employees with five years of experience, unskilled workers with five years of work experience, and persons who graduated from special educational institutions 13 . Periodic checks of persons registered with labor exchanges were of great importance, since the lists of the unemployed often included Nepmen who tried to hide their social identity. Sometimes kulak elements infiltrated factories and factories while regular workers were unemployed. In such cases, trade union organizations purged the workforce of the enterprise 14.

In 1922 - 1925 work was provided only through labor exchanges, subject to priority. Such a system was inconvenient for the national economy, which did not always receive the labor force with the necessary qualifications where it was needed in the first place. And yet, the Soviet state allowed this method of recruiting workers, trying to preserve the proletarian core from declassification. Public works were organized for the unemployed through labor exchanges. The savings made in the first years of the NEP were used, in particular, for social insurance of the unemployed 15. The restored national economy absorbed more and more personnel workers every year. As noted at the XIII Conference of the RCP(b), state large-scale industry grew in 1924 almost twice as much as in 1921 16 . By October 1, 1925, only 170 thousand industrial workers remained among the unemployed out of a total number of 920 thousand, of which 24.4 thousand were skilled 17 .

By 1925, the national economy was almost completely restored. The relationship between the main economic structures has changed

12 See "Collection of laws and orders of the Workers' and Peasants' Government of the USSR", 1922, No. 57, pp. 928 - 929.

13 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5515, op. 24, units hr. 10, l. 3.

14 Here is an excerpt from the minutes of the inter-union meeting of representatives of the Gdov district of the Leningrad region on July 29, 1924: “Listen: Comrade Klimovich informs those gathered that at the D. Bedny factory there is a kulak village element among the workers, while in the city of Gdov there is there are many unemployed people who have nothing. Before the factory is put into operation on August 15, it is necessary to clean up the factory workers" (GAOR SS LO, f. 4709, op. 8, storage unit 263, l. 144).

15 See A. A. Matyugin for more details on this. Decree. cit., p. 193.

16 "CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee." Part 1. Ed. 7th, p. 789.

17 "Labor Statistics", 1926, N 4 - 5, p. 9.

transition period. The socialist structure took a dominant position in the national economy. National economic planning has become more effective. These changes contributed to the elimination of unemployment; cadre workers were basically provided with work.

With the completion of restoration work, the task arose of meeting the needs of the national economy for qualified labor. And this could only be achieved through free employment. Therefore, the mandatory registration of the unemployed and the order of their employment was abolished 18. The regulatory start of exchanges has dropped sharply. Economic organizations began to recruit workers without the mediation of government agencies.

The Soviet state, making a concession to the spontaneous distribution of labor, had by 1925 a solid basis for influencing this process on the part of the Soviet authorities. The share of the socialist economy in gross industrial output in 1924 was 76.3%, in the retail turnover of trading enterprises (including public catering) - 47.3% 19 .

In June 1925, an All-Union meeting of heads of labor exchanges was held, in the decisions of which it was written that the main task of these organizations is the every effort to further expand and deepen the influence of state regulation on the labor market by covering the spheres of supply and demand with labor exchanges 20 . New line strengthening state regulation of labor distribution meant a struggle to master the planning of labor supply and demand.

In 1926 - 1928 employment opportunities for the unemployed were still limited, as new industrial construction was small in these years. The number of factory enterprises increased by 384 (from 8,516 in 1926 to 8,900 in 1928) 21 . Therefore, the main type of assistance to the unemployed at that time was still material support and their employment in public works (cleaning and repairing streets, installing parks, etc.). In 1928 - 1929 The economic plans of a number of industries provided for the cleaning of factory sites and sorting of scrap metal in order to employ some of the unemployed in such work. Every year the state spent 12-15 million rubles on public works 22. In 1923 - 1927 assistance was provided to 400 thousand unemployed 23, in 1927 - 1929. the number receiving assistance has almost doubled. In public works, an unemployed person earned an average of one day, for example, in Moscow 1 ruble. 50 kopecks, in Leningrad - 1 rub. 25 kopecks 24. The unemployed were provided with benefits. In 1926 - 1930 2473 thousand people received unemployment benefits 25. The benefit for unemployed skilled workers and mental workers (with secondary and higher education) was established at the VII Congress of Trade Unions (1927) in the amount of 33% of the average wage in the area, for semi-skilled workers - 25%,

18 According to the decree of the People's Commissariat of the USSR of February 2, 1925, labor exchanges were transferred to free and optional services for both the unemployed and consumers of labor. See "Izvestia of the People's Commissariat of the USSR". 1925, February.

19 "National Economy of the USSR". Statistical collection. M. 1956, p. 31.

20 "Pravda", 19.VI.1925.

21 "Labor Statistics", 1928, N 7, p. 1.

22 "Labor Issues", 1927, No. 10.

23 D. Ledyaev. Unemployment in the USSR and the fight against it. "Labor Issues", 1927, N 10, p. 110.

24 Y. Gindin. Regulation of the labor market and the fight against unemployment, p. 132.

25 Calculations were made based on data from the reference book “Labor in the USSR”. M. 1930, p. 71.

unskilled - 20% 26. For skilled workers, benefits were issued for 9 months, for other categories of unemployed - for 7 months. Unemployed people in particular need received free lunches. In 1922, in some places the unemployed were given a monthly ration 27.

The unemployed were united in labor and production temporary collectives, which provided serious assistance to their members not only financially, but also in the sense of maintaining qualifications and acquiring a new profession. Their great merit is that the unemployed did not lose contact with the working class and industrial production. In 1928 - 1929, when the labor market ceased to satisfy the industry with qualified personnel, effective means assistance to the unemployed was training them in certain professions with subsequent placement in work. In 1925 - 1929, according to incomplete data from the USSR People's Commissariat of Culture, 150,530 people were trained 28 .

In connection with the beginning of industrialization and the deployment of gigantic construction projects, great opportunities arose for more targeted distribution of unemployed labor. To strengthen the regulatory role of the state in the distribution of the unemployed, the number of labor exchanges was increased 29 . Under the People's Commissariat of Labor, the labor market department was expanded. The network of correspondent points that recorded the influx of population from the village to the city increased. A successful experience in regulating the labor force was the conclusion of contracts by labor exchanges with business organizations, first to identify the unemployed for construction and seasonal work. For 1926 - 1927 In these areas of production, more than 600 agreements were concluded, covering over 1,300 thousand workers 30. This was the first experience of planned employment of the unemployed. The introduction of a system of agreements between labor exchanges and economic bodies led to a change in the activities of labor exchanges and a strengthening of their regulatory role. The distribution of unemployed labor became more active, which was associated with the increased need of the national economy for workers. In 1925 - 1926 economic authorities submitted applications to 31 labor exchanges for 2014 thousand workers and employees; in 1926 - 1927 - 73% more. If from 1922 to 1927 the labor exchanges registered about 20 million unemployed (of which about 15 million people were sent to permanent and temporary work 32), then in three years (from 1926 to 1930) they were placed on accounting for 13,716 thousand unemployed, and 16,500 thousand people got jobs 33.

The problem of eliminating unemployment has always been the focus of attention of the Communist Party. In the decisions of the XII and XIII Congresses of the Communist Party, much attention was paid to providing assistance to the unemployed. The XV Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (October - November 1926) outlined a number of events that objectively contributed to increasing the need for labor for agriculture (assistance to the rural poor, development of labor-intensive crops, collectivization of agriculture and its intensification, resettlement, etc.). etc.), the development of industry, which also contributed to the involvement of more and more workers in industry. At the same time, the resolution emphasized the need to expand public services

26 TsGAOR USSR, f. 130, op. 12, units hr. 305, no. 9.

27 Y. Gindin. Regulation of the labor market and the fight against unemployment, p. 132.

28 "Ways of Industrialization", 1930, N 11 - 12, p. 74.

29 From 256 in 1924 to 281 in 1926. In the RSFSR, where there were the most unemployed, there were 172 labor exchanges (TsGAOR USSR, f. 382, ​​op. 4, item 1604, l. 42).

30 Ibid., f. 5515, op. 24, units hr. 214, l. thirty.

31 Ibid., l. 162.

32 "Labor Issues", 1927, No. 10; D. Ledyaev. Unemployment in the USSR and the fight against it, p. 110.

33 "Labor in the USSR". Digest of articles. M. 1930, p. 29.

bot, streamlining assistance to the unemployed, hiring and firing workers, better organization of labor exchanges 34. The issues of eliminating unemployment were also considered at the XV Congress of the CPSU(b) in connection with the further successes of socialist construction. In the congress resolution based on the report of the Central Committee, the problem of unemployment and agrarian overpopulation was classified as one of the most difficult 35. The final solution to these issues was associated with the implementation of the first five-year plan and, on this basis, overcoming the disproportion between the number of available workers in the village and the real possibility of their economic use 36 . The party rejected the methods proposed by the opposition to overcome the imbalance: increasing industrial and decreasing agricultural prices, a sharp increase in taxation of the peasantry. Such methods, of course, would cause impoverishment of the countryside and would therefore lead to the departure of a significant part of the peasantry into industry. The latter would increase the number of unemployed in the cities and would have a detrimental effect on the alliance of the working class and the peasantry. The party considered the development of labor-intensive crops in the countryside and the mechanization of agriculture to be one of the most important ways to mitigate and eliminate unemployment. The rise of such labor-intensive branches of agriculture as cotton growing, flax growing, and beet growing was considered as necessary condition development of textile, sugar and other sectors of the national economy. All this would increase the need for labor. The resolution of the XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks stated that the elimination of unemployment is ensured on the basis of a continuous rise productive forces country, an increase in the share of the socialist sector in the economy, and the constantly improving well-being of workers 37.

By 1928, it became possible to move on to solid long-term planning for the distribution of labor. The share of the socialist sector by 1928 was 82.4% in gross industrial output and 76.4% in retail turnover of trading enterprises 38 . In the factory industry, according to statistical data, there were 2,678 thousand workers in 1925/26, 2,838 thousand in 1926/27, 3,033 thousand in 1927/28, and 1928/29. - 3266 thousand 39. Thus, in 1926 - 1928. there was a constant increase in the number of workers. According to preliminary calculations by the State Planning Committee, the number of unemployed was supposed to decrease over the five-year period (1927/28 - 1932/33). 1.1 million people to 800 thousand. The best option The plan reduced this balance to approximately 400 thousand people 40. But such planning could not be comprehensive, since the share of the socialist sector in agriculture was still small 41 .

In the period from 1929 to 1931, on the basis of socialist construction, a direct process of eliminating unemployment took place. Indicative in this regard are the data on the number of unemployed in the USSR in 1929-1931 42 .

34 See “CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee.” Part II. Ed. 7th, p. 311.

35 See “The Fifteenth Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”. Verbatim report. Part II. M. 1962, p. 1444.

37 Ibid., p. 1145.

38 "National Economy of the USSR", p. 31.

39 "Ways of industrialization", 1930, N 11 - 12, p. 66

40 "Five-year plan for the national economic development of the USSR." T. I. M. 1929, p. 94.

41 See "National Economy of the USSR", page 31.

42 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5515, op. 24, units hr. 244, l. 24; f. 382, op. 10, units hr. 5, l. 38; "Labor in the USSR". Directory, page 36, table. 35.

	Number of unemployed in the USSR (thousand people)
	There were no registered unemployed

In the early 30s, patriarchal, private capitalist and non-capitalist structures in the country's economy practically ceased to exist. Small-scale farming quickly switched to socialist lines. By 1931, socialism began to win on all fronts. Enormous quantitative and qualitative changes have occurred in the national economy. During the five-year plan, 1,500 new industrial enterprises were built 43. During this period, it was planned to increase the number of workers and employees in the country by 3.4 million people 44 . In fact, by the end of the five-year plan, 11.7 million people got jobs 45 . The growth of the labor force envisaged by the plan in industry was exceeded by 91.9%, transport and communications - by 74.6% 46 . In 1930 - 1931 6 million people were involved in the national economy 47. This is explained by the fact that the capacity of many factories by the end of the five-year plan significantly exceeded the planned target. The number of workers increased especially in 1931, when 1,248 new buildings were put into operation 48 . Reconstructed old enterprises have turned into modern production facilities. The introduction of a 7-hour working day and a continuous working week contributed to the rapid elimination of unemployment. This factor, of course, was not decisive in solving the problem of labor employment in the country, but had a beneficial effect on accelerating the elimination of unemployment. In 1928, 23 textile enterprises were transferred to a 7-hour working day for the first time. This made it possible to attract 13 thousand new workers to production activities, of which 10 thousand were unemployed and were sent to enterprises by labor exchanges 49 .

The industrialization of the country opened up wide opportunities for the use of surplus rural labor. During the years of the first five-year plan, 8.2 million peasants, or 70% of newly hired workers and employees, were involved in the branches of the national economy of the USSR 50. The difficulties of the reorganization period in the village increased the withdrawal of peasants from the village. At the end of 1931, the first steps were taken to give this movement an organized character. Thus, out of 800 thousand peasants of the Central Chernozem Region, on instructions from the People's Commissariat of Labor of the RSFSR, 257,066 people were transferred in 1931 to other regions 51. The transfer was carried out with the consent of those moving and their families. They were provided with financial assistance. In this area, workers were also recruited for the most important construction projects in the country - in Magnitogorsk, Dneprostroy, Uralmashstroy and others. Carrying out complete collectivization created the preconditions for a more efficient distribution of labor resources.

43 "Five-year plan for the national economic development of the USSR." T. II, part 2. M. 1930, p. 178.

44 "The National Economy of the USSR in 1956." M. 1957, p. 202.

45 "Results of the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR." M. -L. 1933, p. 268.

47 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5515, op. 15, units hr. 458, l. 14; B. Marcus. Introduction to labor economics. M. 1932, p. 167.

48 "Planned Economy", 1932, No. 7, p. 148.

49 "Supplying the national economy with labor and helping the unemployed." Digest of articles. M. 1928, p. 32.

50 "Results of the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR." M. -L. 1933, p. 174.

51 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5515, op. 17, units hr. 299, l. 242.

In 1930, the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR and the Collective Farm Center of the USSR carried out a comprehensive survey of collective farms in order to identify the number of able-bodied peasants who could be used in industry without harming agriculture. According to the survey, in the Central Chernozem Region they accounted for an average of 69% of the total labor force of the village, in the Ukrainian SSR - 68%, in the Middle Volga Territory - 75% 52 . In the North Caucasus, employment in agriculture reached only 25 - 30%. The materials of the expeditions of the Collective Farm Center showed that in some beet-sugar collective farms of the country, each able-bodied person was employed only 25 - 29 days a year. Data for six cotton-growing collective farms indicate that the average workload per able-bodied person was 94 days 53 .

Peasants who were not fully employed in agriculture went to seasonal work. In the spring of 1930, the national average departure from collective farms was 7.24% of all able-bodied peasants 54 . Otkhodnichestvo provided labor for those branches of labor where seasonal workers were used, while collective farmers were given the opportunity to have Additional income. Material incentives encouraged peasants to move to the city during the period of collectivization. In addition, shortcomings in the implementation of collectivization contributed to the intensification of this displacement.

In 1930 - 1931 The first successes were achieved in the field of otkhodnichestvo planning. Resolution of the People's Commissariat of the USSR and the Collective Farm Center of the USSR dated February 11, 1931 "On attracting labor and horse-drawn forces from collective farms" and the resolution of the Presidium of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Collegium of the People's Commissariat of the RCT of the USSR dated August 28 of the same year "On the organization of otkhodnichestvo and the conclusion of agreements between economic authorities and collective farms" 55 granted the right to financially encourage those collective farms that made the departure of the population from the village systematic. Gradually, all movement of labor reserves from the countryside to industry was introduced into a planned and organized channel. The peasantry has ceased to be a source of unemployment. With the victory of the socialist sector in both industry and agriculture, the planned distribution of labor became the main form of employment for workers and employees. Labor exchanges were reorganized into personnel departments, which were responsible for the planned distribution of workers, as well as planning and control over the training of workers 56. According to the national economic plan for October - December 1930 and 1931, unemployed workers were sent for training and retraining. In the future, they were to be sent to production. The process of training and retraining the unemployed both in the city and in the countryside also contributed to the elimination of unemployment in the country. Old professions became archaic, new ones were born, and the reconstruction of the national economy placed increased demands on workers. This process was carried out in 1929/30 and 1930/31. through an extensive network of courses for training skilled workers. The country was being built, so at that time the profession of a builder was most needed. To train unemployed peasants, women, and teenagers in construction professions, 719 bases were created in 1930 57 . As of December 1, 1930, 56 thousand former unemployed people were studying in these professions. In December 1930, there was a noticeable shift in the preparation of construction work.

52 "Labor Issues", 1931, N 3 - 4, p. 97.

54 "On the Agrarian Front", 1931, No. 6, p. 46.

55 "Agricultural Newspaper", 11.IX.1931.

56 "News of the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR", 1931, N 1, 2. "Regulations on personnel departments of December 28, 1930."

57 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5515, op. 17, units hr. 78, l. 142.

barrels. Each ten-day period of December gave a significant increase in the number of students 58 (sequentially 80, 100, 138 thousand people). Bases for training the unemployed in construction professions have appeared in all republics. Thus, in the RSFSR there were 489 bases, in the Ukrainian SSR - 150, the BSSR - 43, the ZSFSR - 21, the Turkmen SSR - 2, the Tajik SSR - 1 59 . In 1931, there were already 1,680 such training bases 60 . On short-term courses for 1929, 1930 and 1931. 670.1 thousand people were trained 61.

Training and retraining of the unemployed was also carried out at educational manufacturing enterprises, at courses at labor exchanges, the Central Institute of Labor, the Leningrad Institute of Labor, etc. By May 1930, 16.5 thousand people had mastered new professions 62 . As of January 1, 1931, about 20-22 thousand workers were enrolled in training 63 .

Much attention was paid to training unemployed teenagers. For this purpose, training courses for the unemployed in FZU schools and apprenticeship schools for mass professions (SHUMP) were organized throughout the country. Such courses were one of the means to eliminate unemployment among teenagers. There were also general education courses that arose in accordance with the circular of the People's Commissariat of the USSR, the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions dated February 4, 1930 “On the organization of general education courses for training in schools for factory teachers and schools for mass professions in 1930” 64. There were two types of courses. Some taught teenagers who had a 5th-6th grade education at a seven-year school. Their goal was to improve the general educational level of students. Other courses were attended by those who had not completed first-level schools. By the fall of 1930, such courses had prepared 100 thousand teenagers for entry into FZU schools 65. The network of such courses spreads throughout the country.

The introduction of universal primary education required a large number of teachers. In 1930, measures were taken to retrain unemployed teachers. To review their composition, selection commissions were created under public education authorities. By the circular of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR of June 7, 1930, selection commissions were established as an advisory body at labor exchanges with the involvement of party workers, representatives of labor authorities, public education and the unemployed themselves in the commissions 66 . They were entrusted with the task of eliminating unemployment among qualified teachers. The data identified by the selection commissions indicated the need for planned retraining of teachers who had a long break in teaching. In the RSFSR, a retraining plan for 5 thousand teachers was developed 67 . Only in October - December 1930 it was planned to train 4 thousand teachers in this way. As a result of these measures, unemployment among teachers decreased by 75.7% in 1930 (from 12,886 people on January 1, 1930 to 3,133 on December 1, 1930), and by the beginning of 1931 it was completely eliminated.

By the end of 1931, the work to eliminate unemployment in the country was completed. The problem of using female labor was also resolved. The 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) paid special attention to this issue. He invited trade unions to take constant care of professional training and retraining (where necessary) of female workers 69 . The importance of women’s participation in all areas of the national economy was discussed in the resolution of the III session of the Central Executive Committee of the fifth convocation dated January 10, 1931. In 1930, the number of women working in the national economy increased by 1028 thousand people, including 40 thousand in industry. In 1931, 2 million women entered production 70. Improved working conditions attracted many women to heavy industry, especially to mechanical engineering, where on January 1, 1930 women made up 7.1%, and on January 1, 1932 - 18.9% 71 . During the Five-Year Plan, about 30% of women housewives entered production 72. For 1928 - 1932 3.5 million women got jobs in various fields of production, of which 1.4 million came from cities, 2.1 million from rural areas 73 . A significant portion of women have undergone training and retraining in FZU schools, courses, and directly in production. Only in 1931, 69,670 women construction workers, 7,250 metalworkers, and 855 autoworkers were trained at short-term courses at the Central Labor Institute 74 .

Thus, socialist transformations in the country, the implementation of industrialization of the country and collectivization of agriculture created the conditions for eliminating unemployment in the USSR.

69 See “CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee.” Part III. Ed. 7th, p. 67.

70 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5451, op. 15, units hr. 365, l. 132; f. 382, op. 10, units hr. 337, l. 26.

71 Ibid. f. 382, op. 10, units hr. 337, l. 25.

73 "Results of the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR", p. 175.

74 TsGAOR USSR, f. 5515, op. 15, units hr. 438, l. 21.

Unemployment in the USSR was eliminated in 1930, when the last job application was officially issued to a certain mechanic worker named Shkunov at the Moscow Labor Exchange.

Soviet labor exchanges arose throughout the country during the period when V. I. Lenin’s decree “On labor exchanges,” adopted at the beginning of 1918, came into force. The document outlined a plan for how to reorganize work with the population to provide jobs, pay benefits when registering the unemployed, and also indicated the immediate cessation of the work of all commercial labor exchanges that previously operated on a paid basis.

The decree “On Labor Exchanges” talked about how to correctly organize the supply and demand for jobs in the country in all spheres of the national economy.
The Bolsheviks intended to eliminate the legacy of capitalism, which was unemployment, in the shortest possible time.

With the beginning of the systematic nationalization of all lands and branches of agriculture and industry, attracting a huge number of people from rural areas to the city, new jobs were created.

By the beginning of the 30s, the collectivization plan was completed and the industrialization of the country began - this provided an influx of new workers.

J.V. Stalin expressed his historical thought that by 1930 the five-year plan had been completed in 4 years and its main achievement was “that we destroyed unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” In March 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange was closed down as unnecessary, and the Bolsheviks loudly declared themselves to the whole world as a country that had completely defeated unemployment.

For the unemployed of this world, such information was like a breath of hope.

How was it even possible to get rid of unemployment in such a short time?

Labor exchanges in the USSR, of course, were closed, but they also turned a blind eye to those who were left out of society; more precisely, unemployment simply did not fit into the already created system of the totalitarian state of the USSR. And the real unemployment simply went underground. A systematic persecution of identified “parasites” began, who were subjected to administrative penalties through the People’s Commissariat of Labor, which was headed by the Bolshevik A.M. Tsikhon.

At that moment, all payments to the unemployed stopped and an order came into force for the compulsory retraining of the unemployed previously registered at the Soviet labor exchange. By 1931, about 250,000 unemployed people across the country were undergoing retraining.

Those who had previously been on the labor exchange in the USSR had their benefits and allowances canceled, but were also immediately given directions to work. Neither professional, nor age, nor territorial factors (place of residence) were taken into account. For example, a person with a higher education did not have the slightest opportunity to refuse a job, for example, as a laborer at a meat processing plant or a miner, otherwise he was recognized as a parasite. The more a person refused, the more disastrous his situation became, both financially and territorially - jobs were offered further and further from his place of residence.

With the abolition of Soviet labor exchanges, unemployment acquired a hidden form.

In the absence of labor exchanges in the USSR, only in the 30s, millions of peasants who moved to the cities after collectivization and the outbreak of famine received jobs in enterprises with a reduced work schedule and a continuous three-shift work schedule. This system provided more jobs in more than half the businesses in the country. By 1932, over a million former unemployed people had found work.

The liquidation of labor exchanges in the USSR led to the problem of unskilled workers, and Stalin expressed a new thesis: “Cadres decide everything!” “Socially alien” and kulak elements began to be expelled from enterprises; unemployed people previously registered on the Soviet labor exchange were sent to their places.

Those who did not have a job were administratively sent to forced labor. Labor exchanges in the USSR were transformed into territorial personnel departments, their work consisted of an uninterrupted supply of labor to the national economy and correction of its redistribution for the country's shock construction projects.

However, these departments, which replaced the Soviet labor exchanges, did not cope with the task at all. As industrial career guidance increased in the country, by the end of the 30s, the personnel departments at each enterprise began to work on recruiting personnel - “forging personnel” on the ground. The work of retraining and providing qualified workers in accordance with the needs of each individual enterprise came under their full responsibility.

By the mid-30s, they stopped talking about the homeless and the hungry, and by the early 40s in the USSR, any mention of unemployment, any kind of strikes or labor conflicts completely disappeared.

Victoria Maltseva

In 1930, 80 years ago, the closure of the Central Labor Exchange in Moscow was solemnly announced. And it was ordered to consider that from that day on, the USSR became the first and only country in the world to overcome unemployment...
Taking advantage of the opportunity and the anniversary, “Vecherka” decided to find out whether, in fact, all Soviet citizens were “attached”, as well as when the labor exchanges were revived and what they look like today.

Queue at Rakhmanovsky
Hundreds of gloomy people crowd around closed doors. A typical picture from the life of Rakhmanovsky Lane in the 1920s - there, in house No. 3 (where the Ministry of Health is now located), there was a “Mecca” of the Moscow unemployed, the Central Labor Exchange.
The problem with unemployment in Russia began to emerge after the reforms of the 1860s, when peasants left without land poured into the cities. The writer Fyodor Reshetnikov describes in the story “On the Nikolsky Market” (1866) how they tried to settle down in St. Petersburg. The women, huddled together, in the rain and snow from 5 am to 8 pm, hung out in the dirty bazaar, and, seeing a passerby, began to shout: “Take me as a cook!”, “But who needs a wet nurse, I gave birth for the third month.”
Compared to this hustle and bustle, the labor exchanges were a step forward. The first one appeared in Moscow in 1901. But they began to be created en masse after the revolution. By the way, one of the first laws adopted by the Bolsheviks was the “Regulations on Unemployment Insurance,” which established benefits. In 1925, every ninth able-bodied city dweller was unemployed (for comparison, now, according to official data, “only” every 30th, this is for the country as a whole). They stood at the stock exchange for six months, or even a year, subsisting on day labor such as clearing snow or chopping wood. But by the end of the decade, the revival of industry and the emergence of “socialist construction projects” created a lot of jobs.

The most “attached”
So, on March 13, 1930, the exchange in Rakhmanovsky was closed. History has preserved the name of the “last unemployed Muscovite” who received a referral that day - mechanic Mikhail Shkunov. This date is sometimes called the day of complete victory over unemployment in a particular country.
True, if you read the works of historians, it turns out that by October 9, 1930 (on this day unemployment benefits were abolished), 177 people remained registered on the “closed” Moscow stock exchange (and throughout the entire Union there were 180 thousand unemployed). Even a year later, people continued to besiege the building in Rakhmanovsky. And yet, until April 1991, when the Law on Employment appeared and the concepts of “unemployed”, “benefits” and “labour exchange” came into use again, Soviet workers were probably the most “attached” in the world. And yet, were there really no unemployed people at all? Here's the evidence. In the 1970s, Irina Dupuis worked in the “labor department” of the executive committee. They “stuffed” into enterprises a contingent that was “unattractive” to employers: alcoholics, yesterday’s prisoners, truants expelled from everywhere. However, they also helped respectable citizens who were unable to find a job.
“About 40 people passed through us a month,” recalls Irina Mikhailovna.
Now in the employment department “Lublino” of the Central Economics Center of the South-East Administrative District (considered one of the best in the capital), where Irina Dupuis works as deputy head, so many newcomers come every day...

The science of persuasion
If the legendary locksmith Shkunov had come here, he would have gotten the job first. Because the demand now is mainly for blue-collar professions, and white-collar workers are languishing in queues at employment centers. Lyublino used to be a working-class area, but in recent years, people with mental labor have been buying apartments in new buildings there... “This year people are finding work much faster than in the past,” says department head Irina Zolotnikova. – Since the beginning of the year, 1,151 people have registered (for the same period in 2009 – 1,029). But last year, during this time, only 487 got a job, and this year – 747.
The answer is not only that the Lublin employment department offers literally all methods of finding a job. If you are not computer friendly, read the announcements at the stand; too lazy to sit in line and communicate with employees - point your finger at the terminal buttons; If you don’t know how to write a resume, contact a “resource center” where they will teach you the basics of using the Internet. The department also employs career consultants who can masterfully convince an applicant to change his specialty, take free courses... The department, however, cannot remember any cases of a manager “retraining” as a turner, but they can persuade him to choose a “related” profession or reduce salary requirements it turns out. I’m interested in who is “more flexible” in this regard – men or women.
“The one who is the main breadwinner in the family,” answers Irina Zolotnikova.

"Baranka" for a widower
In front of professional consultant Oksana Burdina sits a hunched man with dull eyes and graying temples. His retired mother answers half the questions instead. Assembly mechanic Sergei's beloved young wife died. At my previous job, everything reminds me of the deceased. We need to change our lives somehow. Oksana talks long and patiently with Sergei, and together they come to the conclusion: monotonous work is simply dangerous for him, he needs dynamic work that will bring new impressions and gradually dispel his grief. “I think you received a driver’s license in the army? There is a vacancy for a loader driver in the database...” 49-year-old Vladimir looked into the department.
He recently got a job as an electrician in a matter of days. The company turned out to be no cakewalk: there was a suspiciously high turnover rate, and overtime was too tight. But Vladimir is glad that there is at least such a job; he was unable to get a job on his own.
“I called from advertisements,” he recalls. “And they barked that there weren’t really any vacancies and hung up.
It seems as if these advertisements are given to “bridle” their workers: they say, remember that others are vying for your place. I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep... And now I’m on a regimen, I’ve lost weight, the arrhythmia has disappeared. A person’s work “holds.”
Today Vladimir has a free day (works every other day), and he came in to do some more digging in the database. Perhaps something better will turn up.
Let's wish him good luck.

Help "VM"
In March this year More than 63 thousand unemployed were registered in the capital, 3 thousand more than at the end of 2009. Nevertheless, city authorities expect that the unemployment rate at the end of 2010 will not exceed the 2009 levels.
The city's job bank now has 167 thousand available places.

Evening Moscow

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE COUNTRY OF WORKERS

If before the revolution unemployment was considered an unpleasant but inevitable consequence of progress, then in the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the unemployed representatives of the hegemonic class served as a living reproach to the authorities. Therefore, whenever the number of unemployed began to rise sharply, the party and government feverishly tried to improve the situation.

The first time this happened was in the early 1920s, when a large-scale collapse of industry began. Subsequently, the Bolsheviks persistently introduced into the minds the version that plants and factories stopped during the Civil War due to difficulties with supplies and financing. But that was only part of the truth. Most of the enterprises important for defense, including even aircraft production, continued to operate until the end of the war. Fortunately, pre-revolutionary reserves were huge. For those who still lacked raw materials, the new government helped by requisitioning everything they needed wherever possible. Production began to be reduced only in 1921 due to the cancellation of military orders and the lack of money among the peasants, exhausted by crop failures, appropriations and taxes.

Almost the main role in maintaining the enterprises in working order was played by their former managers and owners, who collaborated with the communists. Most of them believed that the October Revolution and the Civil War were severe consequences of the war with Germany and that all this would inevitably end. The fact that everything should return to normal was also evidenced by the new economic policy announced by Lenin. Small enterprises began to be transferred into the hands of former owners, and the GPU reported to the Central Committee in 1922 that private industries had raw materials and sales were organized and, although there were attempts to exploit workers, wages were paid regularly and the workers were happy.

The authorities declared their intention to take the next step - to transfer large plants, factories, mines and mines into concession, practically into ownership for a specified number of years. But in reality, almost all applications for concessions were stuck for a long time in various authorities, and only a few out of many thousands of applicants received a positive response. So it became obvious to everyone that the Soviet government was not going to give up its commanding heights in industry. The relations of the former owners with the Soviet authorities were spoiled forever. “This approach caused us innumerable disasters,” wrote the chairman of the GPU, Dzerzhinsky, to the People’s Commissar of Military Trotsky in March 1923 about the promise to hand over all factories in concession. “It disorganized our entire Soviet industry, organizing against it all the former owners and their hundreds of thousands of clerks who previously filled our chapters, and now trusts and syndicates. A right idea, misused, has become disastrous for us."

The failed owners did nothing special. They simply did not do anything that would help cope with the financial, supply and other problems of enterprises. Delays in wages went from regular to chronic, and inflation devalued any earnings even before workers had time to receive them. Strikes began throughout the country demanding higher tariffs and payment of money owed. In response, local and central authorities began to lay off workers and transfer unprofitable enterprises to mothballing until better times.

During 1923, the crisis grew and captured more and more provinces and enterprises. Actually, what was happening in the country was a secret war for property. The former owners believed that, under pressure from dissatisfied proletarians, the Bolsheviks would agree to rent out shutdown plants and factories.

The Politburo created a commission that regularly put forward various options for combating unemployment. The final draft, which was adopted in July 1924, was distinguished by exceptional cynicism: “Taking into account that unemployment will be severe, as well as the possibility of a new influx of unemployed from the villages due to crop failure... a specific real cleansing of the composition of the registered throughout the Union with the removal of unemployed and low-value elements seeking benefits rather than work (at least 30-25% of those registered)." By the same decision, the country's highest political body established new registration rules, according to which anyone who did not have qualifications and had less than 6-7 years of experience could not get a job. But the main thing was that registration at the labor exchange no longer entailed the payment of any benefits.

By the end of August, the party’s instructions were carried out, and in Leningrad, out of 140 thousand unemployed on the stock exchange, 95 thousand were “cleaned out.” Although, as the OGPU noted, “the number of actual unemployed is increasing.” New extra people were added to the workers and peasants who fled to the cities - demobilized Red Army soldiers and their commanders.

It was obvious to the Bolshevik leaders responsible for the economy, which included the chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Economy and at the same time the chairman of the OGPU Dzerzhinsky, that unemployment could only be dealt with in one way - by increasing production. But I still didn’t want to attract funds from private investors and foreigners. there were either not enough of their own, or they were spent in a way that was strange even for Dzerzhinsky.

By 1925, unemployment had become a chronic problem. Economic authorities proposed to organize retraining for the unemployed. But with great difficulty, VSNKh agreed to accept only 20 thousand retrained workers into its existing enterprises throughout the country. In the country, according to unofficial data, there were up to 10 million unemployed. As a result, the entire burden of dealing with crowds of hungry and disadvantaged people fell on labor exchange employees. In reports of incidents and reviews of the situation in the country, a permanent section “Speeches of the Unemployed” and “Excesses at Labor Exchanges” appeared, where cases of destruction of exchanges and beatings of their employees were recorded. True, registrars and exchange managers were not always innocent victims of popular anger. The vacancies that appeared were offered to relatives, acquaintances, those who gave bribes, and women who, as the reports say, “agreed to sexual cohabitation.” those who did not agree to cohabitation could be asked to go to Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow, and to Ligovka in St. Petersburg, where prostitutes gathered.

Demobilized Red commanders, left without a means of subsistence, also often resorted to force or threats. “The nervous mood among the demobilized command personnel,” stated the OGPU in November 1926, “was expressed in speeches that took place in Kiev and Odessa. In Kiev, at the military section of the City Council, where up to 150 former commanders gathered, speakers (former chief of staff and others. ) sharply criticized the activities of local authorities in freeing up 3% of the staff places reserved for command personnel and the refusal to hire those who do not know the Ukrainian language and threatened to send a delegation to Voroshilov, to Kharkov and Moscow... Addressed to the Odessa okRIK (district executive committee .-"Power") received anonymous letters signed by the "secret headquarters of the Povstankom of the demobilized senior, middle, junior and Red Army personnel of the Odessa garrison", which threatened the authorities with reprisals if the unemployed were not given jobs in the coming days. Povstankom also points to connections with non-resident organizations of demobilized people and troops under arms."

In order to get into the factory and fully enjoy all the social benefits of the worker, it was necessary to meet requirements that were almost impossible for most Soviet citizens

In order to get into the factory and fully enjoy all the social benefits of the worker, it was necessary to meet requirements that were almost impossible for most Soviet citizens.

E. Zhirnov. “There have been many suicides among the unemployed”

UNION AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED

IN reporting period A number of strong unrest among the unemployed have been registered due to the weak elimination of unemployment and insufficient assistance. The unrest of the unemployed in Odessa was especially serious in connection with the suicide of one unemployed man. Excited by the sight of a suicide (who jumped from the 2nd floor of the labor exchange building), the crowd organized a protest demonstration with the participation of 4,000 unemployed people. Socialist-Revolutionary and Menshevik agitators spoke in the crowd, under whose influence the crowd demanded that the unemployed be involved in control over the bodies working to combat unemployment. At the trade union meetings of the unemployed that took place after the demonstration, representatives of trade union and party organizations were not allowed to speak; The speakers demanded the removal of wives and relatives of responsible workers from work, the abolition of privileges for unemployed communists and a fight against overtime.

Another serious demonstration took place in Kyiv, where a group of unemployed construction workers tried to seize the banner of the trade union and organize a demonstration to comrade who was in Kiev. Petrovsky. The attempt was prevented by a group of communists and Komsomol members who recaptured the banner after the fight. Individual protests by the unemployed were noted in Minsk (a crowd of unemployed people, sent to work without tools and not accepted there, tried to beat up an exchange employee); in Yaroslavl province. (signatures were collected from among the unemployed who wanted to take part in the demonstration). In Irkutsk province. the unemployed dock workers organized their own union to fight unemployment; In view of the liquidation of the union, the unemployed are threatening to beat up the administration of Karlenzoloto, who recruit workers at their own discretion. At the Novonikolayevsk and Omsk labor exchanges, there is a tendency among the unemployed to destroy the exchange, which, in their opinion, only interferes with getting a job. In Akmola province. the unemployed elected their delegates with the demand to achieve the elimination of unemployment, otherwise demanding the destruction of the labor exchange. In all the speeches, the agitating element was representatives of various anti-Soviet parties - Mensheviks, anarchists and Ukapists.

From the OGPU Review of the Political Economic State of the SSS for May 1924.

THE YEAR OF THE GREAT FRACTURE

Despite this situation with the skilled labor force and the significant increase in the employed labor force noted above, reporting year There was still an increase in the average annual number of unemployed registered at the labor exchange. However, the reporting year can be marked as a turning point in the dynamics of unemployment in the USSR. The rapid growth rate of the total number of unemployed, which took place in previous years, gave way in 1928/29 to a significant decrease, as can be seen from the table data.

On average, for the entire 1928/29, the increase in unemployment was 9.7%. Data at the end of the reporting year show an absolute decrease in the balance of registered unemployed compared to the beginning of 1928/29 by 123 thousand, or 9%. These data show that the planned assumptions of unemployment growth, projected by the target figures for 1928/29 in the amount of 20.6% in relation to the previous year, turned out to be exaggerated. This exaggeration resulted from the underestimation of the series economic factors, which accompanied the rapid growth of socialist construction. These factors include, in particular, the faster pace of expansion of the socialized agricultural sector and the construction of state farms, which was accompanied by a greater demand for labor, in particular for qualified metalworkers of various professions, counting, agronomy, etc. staff. At the same time, the influx of people from rural areas to cities has also decreased.

The organizational measures of the labor authorities were also underestimated, in particular the regulation of the influx of seasonal labor, the attachment of seasonal workers directly to economic agencies and the verification of the composition of the unemployed who were registered with labor exchanges, which only in February - April of the reporting year resulted in the elimination of the unemployed from labor exchanges in the number of about 40 -50 thousand

Data on the dynamics of unemployment show that its growth was mainly due to the general growth of the entire working population of the country and agricultural overpopulation. As can be seen from the above data, the composition of the unemployed during the reporting year changed sharply due to an increase in the number of persons who were not employed. The share of this category of unemployed in the total number of all unemployed rose from 25.6% on October 1, 1928 to 33.5% on October 1, 1929. In absolute numbers, this group of unemployed for the period from October 1928 to October 1929 g. gives an increase of 67.1 thousand, or 19.2%, while the group of unemployed employed people, on the contrary, gives a decrease for the same period of 190.1 thousand, or 18.7% .

The category of unemployed people who have not previously worked for hire consists almost exclusively of unskilled labor, with 67.8% of this category falling among adolescents and 70.8% among women. During 1928/29, the increase in the number of unemployed teenagers was 21%. At the same time, the share of teenagers in the total number of unemployed rose from 17.6% on October 1, 1928 to 23.4% on October 1, 1929. The growth of female unemployment significantly outpaces the growth of unemployment among men. While the average annual increase for 1928/29 among men was 3.3%, among women it was 19%. If we compare the data for October 1, 1928 and October 1, 1929, it turns out that unemployment among men during this period decreased by 24.3%, and among women, on the contrary, it increased by 7.6%. The share of unemployment among women increased from 47% on October 1, 1928 to 56% on October 1, 1929.

From materials for the report of the USSR government for 1928/29.

The proletariat of the USSR, in alliance with the working peasantry under the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), defeating class enemies and their supporters, in a fierce struggle for socialism, achieved the complete elimination of unemployment in the USSR.

On March 13, 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange closed. The USSR declared itself the first country in the world to overcome unemployment.

In Russia, labor exchanges created by city governments arose at the beginning of the twentieth century in the largest industrial centers - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Odessa. Along with them, private intermediary firms became widespread, charging high fees from the unemployed for providing work.

Stalin made the fight against unemployment in the USSR one of the most important tasks.

“One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years is that we eliminated unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” Stalin I.V., Results of the first five-year plan, “Questions of Leninism”, p. 501, ed. 10th.

On March 13, 1930, the last job order was issued at the Moscow Labor Exchange - to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov, after which the exchange closed.

Modern Russia

It’s not very often that representatives of big business allow themselves the luxury of being frank. The most odious initiatives of employers, such as Prokhorov’s amendments to the Labor Code, are usually accompanied by demagoguery about social responsibility and the desire to make working people happy. All the more valuable are the revelations of businessmen like Oleg Tinkov, who do not hesitate to publicly express the cherished thoughts and aspirations of their class.

The billionaire shared his impressions after visiting a sneaker factory in China in the video blog of Finance magazine. According to Tinkov, unemployment is an excellent incentive for increasing labor productivity.

“So we need to teach technologies, and the factor that forces us to implement these technologies is the queue on the streets. These times, fortunately, have come. I actually love this crisis. I like it because efficiency and labor productivity increase, people become more accommodating. Otherwise there were no waiters to be found in the restaurant... They’ll go now, thank God. And they will work better for the same money. This is good", says Tinkov.

Monstrous working conditions in Chinese enterprises, famous for their meager wages, widespread use of child labor, disregard for basic safety rules and the brutal suppression of labor protests, are the object of constant criticism from international organizations and trade unions. Such factories are aptly named sweatshops. Mr. Tinkov, without a shadow of embarrassment, proclaims lawlessness and poverty as a condition for “increasing labor productivity.”

We should be grateful to Mr. Tinkov. The more such revelations there are, the sooner thinking Russian workers will begin to see the essence behind the smooth speeches of the gentlemen from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the government, the sooner they will develop in themselves the same clear understanding of their class interests as the Tinkovs.

Reference:

Oleg Tinkov was born on December 25, 1967 in Leninsk-Kuznetsky. Since 1992, he was engaged in the wholesale trade of electronics from Singapore and created the Tekhnoshok chain of household appliance stores, the MusicShok chain of stores, and the SHOK-Records recording studio in St. Petersburg. In 1997, he sold these companies and started the dumpling business, producing products under the Daria brand. In 2003, he created the Tinkoff brewing company (sold in 2005, the proceeds from the transaction are estimated at approximately 200 million €) and a restaurant chain of the same name with their own breweries (sold on September 24, 2009). Since 2006, he has headed the commercial bank Tinkoff. Credit Systems". In October 2012, Oleg Tinkov, together with other shareholders, sold a 4% stake in TKS Bank to the Horizon Capital fund for $40 million, thus his entire business was valued at $1 billion. In April 2013, Forbes magazine placed him in the ranking of newcomers among the richest businessmen of Russia.

Creating the foundation of the socialist economy in the USSR (1926-1932) Team of authors

1. Elimination of unemployment in the USSR

The very first results of the country's socialist industrialization, as well as the transfer of the scattered, small-scale peasant economy to the rails of large-scale socialist production during the years of the first five-year plan, introduced fundamental socio-economic changes in the situation of working people in cities and villages. The resolution of the joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, held in January 1933, noted: “The steady rise of industry and agriculture in the USSR was determined by two main facts that radically improved the financial situation of the working people:

1. Elimination of unemployment and elimination of uncertainty about the future among workers.

2. Coverage of collective farm construction to almost the entire poor, undermining on this basis the stratification of the peasantry into haves and have-nots and, in connection with this, eliminating impoverishment and pauperism in the countryside” 1322.

The successes of the socialist socialization of all sectors of the national economy during the years of the first five-year plan for the first time in the history of mankind led to the complete and final liberation of working people from exploitation. In the private sector of the national economy in 1932, only 0.8% of wage earners remained, compared to 16.5% in 1927/28. Millions of farm laborers and poor people were forever freed from exhausting labor for meager wages for kulaks.

The historical achievement of the first five-year plan was the complete elimination of such social barbarism and blatant economic waste, inherited from the capitalist past, as mass unemployment.

Unemployment prevented the involvement of a significant part of the workers in the ranks of active builders of socialism. It had a heavy impact on the living standards of workers. The income of an unemployed person was several times less than the income of an employed worker. The presence of a large number of unemployed, and they accounted for about 10-12% of the total number of workers, slowed down the improvement in the financial situation of the working class as a whole. Soviet society was interested in the complete elimination of unemployment and the destruction of the causes that gave rise to it.

The methods, ways and means of combating unemployment in the USSR were radically different from the measures of bourgeois governments. The governments of capitalist countries are trying to regulate the labor market and are forced to apply certain measures to help the unemployed, including the social insurance system in case of unemployment. However, this achieves, at best, only some alleviation of the consequences of this phenomenon, and not the elimination of the causes and conditions that give rise to it, or the elimination of unemployment.

The Soviet government set as its main and ultimate goal not the maintenance of a certain level, but the complete and final elimination of unemployment. Its main source on the eve of the first Five-Year Plan was agrarian overpopulation, inherited from pre-revolutionary times and preserved due to the predominance of small-scale commodity production in the countryside. In the first years of reconstruction, it was not possible to immediately eliminate the agrarian overpopulation of the village. The Soviet state therefore had to, along with measures to employ the unemployed, take measures to mitigate the consequences of unemployment and alleviate the situation of people not employed in production.

Material assistance to those who were temporarily unemployed was provided from the funds of the state, social insurance, trade unions and other public organizations. The main source of financing material assistance to the unemployed was social insurance.

According to the rules for issuing social insurance benefits introduced in 1927, benefits for unemployed skilled workers and specialists were determined at 33% of the average wage in a given area; semi-skilled workers and employees - 25%; unskilled with a certain work experience - 20%. In addition, there were allowances for dependents: 15% of the benefit for one person, 25% for two, 35% for three or more people 1323. The largest benefits were received by the unemployed in large industrial centers. From May 1927, the established period for issuing benefits to the unemployed was extended from 6 to 9 months, and for certain categories of the unemployed, this deadline, with the permission of trade unions, reached 27 and even 36 months 1324.

As a result of these measures, the financial situation of the unemployed has significantly improved, and the scope of their social insurance benefits has expanded. If on January 1, 1926, approximately 300 thousand people received benefits, then on January 1, 1927 - 484 thousand, and on January 1, 1928 - 611.5 thousand people 1325. Overall, in 1928/29, 56% of all unemployed people received unemployment benefits, compared to 20-30% in 1924-1925. The average monthly allowance reached 15 rubles in 1926/27. versus 8 rub. in 1924/25

Material assistance to the unemployed was also provided in the form of providing them with free food and overnight accommodation. For example, in 1928/29, 30.8 thousand people were provided with free meals and overnight accommodation.

Greater financial assistance was provided to the unemployed by trade unions, which created special funds for this purpose. From the trade union fund, 7.5 million rubles were spent in 1924/25 to combat unemployment, and about 30 million rubles in 1928/29. 1326

In the first years of reconstruction, allocations for the fight against unemployment in the state and local budgets increased significantly: in 1924/25, 14 million rubles were spent for these purposes, in 1927/28 - 23 million rubles. 1327

So, despite the financial difficulties associated with the industrialization of the country, material assistance to the unemployed has increased from various sources - social insurance funds, trade unions, state and local authorities. The total amount of monetary allocations increased from 1924/25 to 1928/29 by 3.3 times, reaching 172.3 million rubles. At the same time, the largest part of the funds came from social insurance (about 120 million rubles in 1928/29) 1328.

An effective and efficient measure to combat unemployment was the implementation of public works, the creation of labor, production and trade collectives of the unemployed. The state annually spent 12-15 million rubles on public works organized for the unemployed. In 1924/25-1926/27. On average, 40 thousand people were employed in public works throughout the country annually, in 1927/28 - 23 thousand, and in 1928/29 - 10 thousand people 1329. In 1930, public works began to gradually decline due to increased demand for labor, including for rapidly developing construction, expanding the volume of loading and unloading operations, etc.

Mass organization in 1926-1929 was of great importance for the fight against unemployment. labor, production and trade collectives. State aid was provided to unemployed groups. In 1925/26, more than 4 million rubles were spent on their organization, and in 1927/28 - 8 million rubles. 1330 These collectives were exempt from taxes and fees for six months from the date of organization. A special bureau was created under the People's Commissariat of Labor to assist production teams of the unemployed in supplying them with raw materials and marketing their products. In the third quarter of 1928/29, 144.8 thousand people were employed in unemployed collectives - 1.7 times more than in 1925. 1331 The bulk of them were employed in production (53.5% of all employees in collectives) , as well as in work collectives (36.4%); the trading collectives employed relatively few unemployed people. (10.1%) 1332. Taking into account the turnover of workers (replacement, according to relevant regulations, had to be carried out on average twice a year), approximately 290 thousand unemployed people received labor assistance in 1928/29.

Collectives of the unemployed helped their members not only financially, but also in terms of maintaining their qualifications and acquiring a new profession. By decision of local authorities, strengthened production teams of the unemployed were transferred to the relevant economic departments as employees of stable enterprises, and thus people received permanent jobs. However, these measures, for all their importance and significance, only weakened the consequences of unemployment, but did not eliminate it.

The five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR determined a wide range of measures to eliminate unemployment 1333. It was assumed that during the five-year period the working population in cities would increase by 3.6-3.9 million people; There were over 1.3 million unemployed people on labor exchanges in 1928, therefore, the task was to quickly involve over 5 million people in production 1334. The solution to this problem was possible only on the basis of the widespread development of socialist industrialization of the country.

Since the beginning of the first five-year plan, the Communist Party and the Soviet government have directed efforts to quickly eliminate unemployment in the country. The program for the complete eradication of unemployment in the conditions of the widespread offensive of socialism along the entire front was the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of December 5, 1929. 1335 Noting the rapid growth in the number of the working class and the reduction in the growth rate of unemployment, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks developed practical measures to provide for all sectors of the national economy with skilled workers and a systematic reduction in the number of unemployed. Further measures were planned to expand their retraining and retraining, and eliminate pockets of unemployment among women and youth.

The enormous growth of industry, the success of collectivization of agriculture and the intensive development of cultural construction in the period 1929-1932. accompanied by the rapid involvement of more and more workers in production. At the beginning of the five-year plan (October 1928), there were 1364.4 thousand unemployed in the USSR, including. 206.5 thousand industrial workers, about 700 thousand unskilled workers, recent immigrants from the countryside, and 240.3 thousand young people who have not yet worked. The rapid pace of industrialization immediately led to a sharp decrease in unemployment, the volume of which decreased from 1,741 thousand people on April 1, 1929 to 1,081 thousand people on April 1, 1930, 236 thousand on January 1, 1931, and 18 thousand. people on August 1, 1931

The transfer of industrial workers to a 7-hour working day had a significant impact on accelerating this process. The establishment of a shorter working day immediately led to an increase in the number of workers in enterprises and entire industries in the amount of from 5.7 to 26%.

The theoretical position of the classics of Marxism-Leninism that a rational reduction of the normal working day in a socialist society will lead to the elimination of excessive labor of one part of the working population and will become an important means of eliminating unemployment and forced idleness of another part of it, for the first time found real embodiment in the practice of socialist construction in the USSR .

Great importance was attached to the problem of eliminating women's unemployment, which was the most stable and long-lasting. In Tsarist Russia, according to the 1897 census, 55% of all women employed in wage labor served as domestic servants for the ruling classes, 25% worked as laborers for kulaks and landowners, and 17% worked in enterprises and educational and health care institutions. After the victory of the October Revolution, the situation of women changed radically. Already in 1929, 52% of all women employed in the national economy worked at enterprises in various production sectors, 22% in health care and education, and 7% in various government bodies. During 1929-1932 the number of women employed in construction increased almost 6 times, in large industry - 2.1 times, in transport - 2.3 times, in trade - 3.8 times, and throughout the national economy - almost 2 times. As a result of these changes, the proportion of women in the total number of people employed in the national economy as a whole increased from 25.3% in 1926 to 27.4% in 1932. Involving the country’s female population in participation in social production and implementing on this basis true economic and social, and not just formal, legal equality of women, represented one of the most important revolutionary achievements of socialist construction.

Much attention was paid to measures to eliminate unemployment among young people. The expansion of enrollment in schools of technical education and mass professions significantly contributed to the involvement of the younger generation in social production. Hundreds of thousands of young men and women were attracted to study, and their places were taken by those who still needed work and were registered at labor exchanges. The autumn enrollment of 1930 in FZU schools exhausted the last resources of the labor exchange 1336.

The fundamental problems of cultural construction, which were solved during the years of the first five-year plan, also had an important impact on the elimination of unemployment in our country. The most important task of the late 1920s was the need to eliminate illiteracy and illiteracy among the population, which required a huge number of teachers. The need for teaching staff increased even more due to the introduction of universal compulsory primary education. A wide network of pedagogical courses was created. Enrollment in pedagogical colleges has increased. Graduates of technical schools, and those who studied there were mostly workers and peasants, no longer faced the problem of employment.

The restructuring of health care required an increase in the number of medical personnel. By mid-1929, labor exchanges no longer had reserves of qualified physicians, and the need for them increased every year.

The broad organization of cultural and educational work ensured the elimination of unemployment among cultural and art workers.

As one of the factors in the overall process of reducing unemployment, it should be noted the expansion of training of specialists for the national economy through higher and secondary educational institutions.

Summing up the results of the first five-year plan, the January (1933) joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks emphasized that the elimination of unemployment and the elimination of uncertainty about the future among workers was one of the main factors that radically improved the financial situation of workers.

As a result of the elimination of unemployment, the working people of the Soviet country for the first time in history received a real right to work - the greatest achievement of the first five-year plan. Speaking later, in 1937, to young people, M.I. Kalinin noted: “I consider one of the most important improvements in life to be that today the eternal sword of Damocles does not hang over the worker - the worker is not afraid that tomorrow he will remain unemployed. The young and middle generation of our workers cannot even mentally reproduce the feeling of losing a job that the proletarian experienced in the past. Even the higher categories of workers, who were comparatively better off not only in the size of their earnings, but also in their constancy, even these workers never got rid of the thought of the possibility of losing their earnings every minute” 1337.

The complete elimination of unemployment in our country historically coincided with the development of a severe, deep and prolonged economic crisis in the countries of world capitalism. During this crisis, tens of millions of proletarians in capitalist countries were doomed to long-term unemployment, led a miserable, half-starved existence, lost their qualifications, etc. Until now, mass chronic unemployment either subsides somewhat or flares up with renewed vigor in capitalist countries.

In the USSR, unemployment, buried during the years of the first five-year plan, has forever passed into the realm of legends. All foreign delegations that visited the Soviet Union in those years invariably drew attention to the confidence of all workers of our country in their future. The working people of the capitalist world never cease to admire full employment of the population as the greatest achievement of socialism, as the most important sign of the socialist way of life.

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27 Draft agreement between Great Britain, France and the USSR, presented by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. M. Molotov to the British Ambassador to the USSR W. Seeds and Chargé d'Affaires of France in the USSR J. Paillard on June 2, 1939. Secret Government of Great Britain and France

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No. 3 ORDER OF THE MINISTER OF INTERIOR AFFAIRS OF THE USSR, MINISTER OF JUSTICE OF THE USSR AND PROSECUTOR GENERAL OF THE USSR “ON THE ORDER OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECREE OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE USSR OF MARCH 27, 1953 “ON AMNESTY”” March 28, 1953 No. 08/012/85c Pursuant to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council USSR from 27

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From the book BELARUS by UCHOR I XIAN by Naidzyuk Yazep

The USSR declared itself the first country in the world to overcome unemployment

“One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years
is that we have eliminated unemployment
and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.”

Stalin I.V., Results of the first five-year plan,
"Questions of Leninism", p. 501, ed. 10th.

In Russia, labor exchanges created by city governments arose at the beginning of the twentieth century in the largest industrial centers - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Odessa. Along with them, private intermediary firms became widespread, charging high fees from the unemployed for providing work. Trade unions did not participate in organizing labor intermediation through labor exchanges.

In the USSR, labor exchanges existed in the first years of Soviet power. They were an instrument of the proletarian state in the systematic fight against unemployment - the “legacy of capitalism.” The decree “On Labor Exchanges”, published on January 31, 1918 and signed by V.I. Lenin, liquidated all private and paid bureaus and hiring offices and established state free labor exchanges. They were entrusted with: employment of the unemployed, issuing benefits to them, accounting and distribution of workers in all sectors of the national economy, as well as streamlining the demand and supply of labor, organizing public works, etc.

Following the “great turning point” of 1929, a totalitarian system of state socialism began to take shape in the country, which deformed the processes of free socio-economic development.

Like any totalitarianism of that time, for example, in Germany, Italy, Japan, the Stalinist regime put the fight against unemployment in the USSR among the most important tasks and was the first to proclaim the “final solution” of this issue as its main achievement in the social and labor sphere.

The decisive step was the abolition of the labor market. It was from this that the path to the commodity-free utopia of barracks socialism began, which changed the system of social and labor relations. The first five-year plan assumed that the “socialist labor plan” would become the only regulator of the movement of labor. To do this, it was necessary to deliberately destroy the real relations of purchase and sale, i.e. hiring labor through the labor market, social guarantees for the unemployed, and also limit the freedom of choice of employment only to the public sector of the economy.

On March 13, 1930, the last job order was issued at the Moscow Labor Exchange - to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov, after which the exchange closed. And on November 7, 1930, the Pravda newspaper proclaimed:

For propaganda purposes, the whole world was announced about the final deliverance from the damned legacy of capitalism - unemployment. The victory of world-historical proportions was applauded by the proletarians of all countries: after all, the great crisis left millions of people unemployed. Economically, socially, and most importantly, politically, unemployment did not fit into the socialist labor system constructed by totalitarianism.

For a long time it seemed that, while pursuing social policy, the Soviet state was struggling with unemployment in the city and agrarian overpopulation in the countryside, creating more and more new jobs, until, with a “triple leap” into socialism - through industrialization, collectivization and the cultural revolution - it eliminated these problems at once together with the remnants of the exploiting classes. In fact, it was not unemployment itself that was eliminated first, but the system of social guarantees for workers in the labor market. Real unemployment, which by the end of the five-year plan was supposed to be at least 0.5 million people, was “outlawed” and “driven underground.” Identified unemployed people were subject to administrative prosecution. In the summer of 1930, the People's Commissariat of Labor and its local bodies were reorganized, and its leadership, declared opportunistic, was replaced. The new People's Commissar of Labor A. M. Tsikhon, who replaced N. A. Uglanov in this post, accused of right deviation, like a parrot, repeated after Stalin that there was no longer unemployment in the USSR.

Where could she have disappeared in such a short time?

The issue was resolved very simply and, as always, “from above.” In October 1930, a decision was made to stop paying unemployment benefits and immediately distribute all unemployed people to work. Using the freed up funds, mass forced retraining of the unemployed under the labor authorities was launched (by the beginning of 1931, 20-22 thousand people were undergoing it at a time).

All benefits were canceled for those registered at the labor exchange, except for one - immediate assignment to work. Everyone registered with the exchanges was forcibly offered jobs, regardless of age, gender, place of residence, existing profession or specialty. If a person of an intelligent profession refused the vacancy of a hauler in a mine or a laborer at a construction site, he was automatically ranked among the “idlers” and “parasites” who were still found work, but in more remote places. In fact, unemployment in big cities has become hidden.

The dissolution of registered unemployment was also facilitated by the accelerated creation of new jobs, including through the transition from an 8-hour to a 7-hour working day (in accordance with the Manifesto of the Central Executive Committee session of October 15, 1927). By the beginning of 1931, 58% of all workers and employees were transferred to a shortened working day, and in 1932 it was established throughout industry. To increase equipment utilization, part-time working weeks and three-shift work were introduced at industrial enterprises. All this required additional workers. As a result, over a million formerly unemployed people found work.

During the first five-year plan, all private and most cooperative and mixed enterprises were successively nationalized, confiscated or closed, and then industrial and consumer cooperation was completely reorganized on a state-centered Union basis.

At the same time, collectivization was going on - a particularly ugly form of state forced cooperation. In agriculture, methods of suppression were widely used: from ruinous taxes and confiscations to evictions and extreme measures " social protection" By the end of the Five-Year Plan, about 15 million peasants were subject to dispossession, deportation to remote areas of the country, suffered from the consequences of the socialization of their personal property, and became victims of the famine that broke out in the country. But at the same time, more than 9 million peasants came to the cities, agreeing to any work. In 1931 alone, 1.5 million people were recruited for logging, 2.6 million for construction, 200 thousand for peat mining, and 150 thousand peasants for Donbass coal mines.

Production requirements for the quality of the workforce and its professional and qualification level have dropped sharply. Where previously one skilled worker worked, 3-4 new jobs were created. A typical figure of a worker is someone who came from the village yesterday, who previously did not know industrial work and the urban way of life. It is he - the semi-skilled proletarian - who turns into an appendage of the machine in the factory, stands at the conveyor belt at the automobile or tractor plant, the sweatshop systems introduced in the Taylor-Ford model, previously unprecedented in Russia, were designed for him. To expand the “front of work,” labor operations were artificially divided into private functions, and a “semi-manufacturing” division of labor was introduced. The industrial worker increasingly turned into a partial worker, completely dependent on the distribution of work at the production site. Deprofessionalization has led to a further increase in the demand for labor, contributing to an increase in its general shortage.

Along with the expansion of employment, conditions were created that gave rise to high staff turnover and workers leaving enterprises in the hope of improving their financial and living conditions. The proclaimed “fight against unemployment” gradually became a fight against staff turnover. The People's Commissariat of Labor was tasked with identifying “labor deserters”, flyers, and depriving them of the right to get a job for six months. In order to ensure full employment of the proletariat not employed by the stock exchange, “socially alien” and kulak elements were expelled from enterprises, and registered unemployed were sent in their places. The exchanges did not register “former people” for employment, and those who did not have a job were subject to administrative eviction and forced labor. Labor exchanges were transformed into territorial personnel departments, responsible for “supplying” the national economy with labor, carrying out its planned transfer and redistribution to shock enterprises and construction sites.

And yet, unemployment continued to exist. Under the pretext that half of them were “idlers” and “grabbers”, everyone was removed from the register. However, despite the regularly carried out purges of “false unemployed”, the almost complete closure of exchanges and labor departments that carried out registration and assignment to work, obvious unemployment to one degree or another was detected in many large cities (Leningrad, Odessa, Kharkov). According to official statistics, as of August 1, 1931 (with the complete elimination of unemployment), more than 18 thousand people were registered. Then all mention of unemployment disappeared. As well as mentions of homeless people, starving people, strikes and labor conflicts.

Having excluded the labor market and unemployment from the system of regulation of social and labor relations, labor authorities have failed to fulfill the task assigned to them - to organize the direct distribution and redistribution of labor resources. Therefore, they were universally abolished as unnecessary (1933). Gradually, the functions of selection, training and transfer of labor were transferred to enterprises and their departments. Personnel departments began to be created that independently resolved issues of providing enterprises with qualified personnel in accordance with production plans.

83 years ago there was no unemployment. True, she died only in one particular country, and only according to official reports, but the story about this has still been preserved. On March 13, 1930, the USSR closed last exchange labor - Moscow. After this, the Soviet Union declared itself the first country in the world to finally end unemployment.

Labor exchanges were first created in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their branches appeared in several large cities of the Russian Empire: in Moscow, Riga, Odessa, and, of course, in the capital St. Petersburg. In addition to them, private offices arose that provided employment for a fee.

With the Bolsheviks coming to power, the latter were abolished, and unemployment itself was declared a shameful “legacy of capitalism.” The struggle against the “heritage” began, which was greatly hampered by the NEP: people without income were drawn from the villages to the cities, and in the meantime, in the cities, factories were closed en masse, and factory staff were reduced. There were more and more unemployed people, they held protests, and it became clear that action was urgently required.

And measures did not fail to appear. In July 1924, new registration rules were introduced: those who had less than 6-7 years of work experience were prohibited from registering for unemployment, as were those who did not have working qualifications. Those who met these requirements, but were already registered, were removed from the register. As "low value elements". At the same time, unemployment benefit payments stopped. Formally, in order not to indulge those who do not want to work, but only want to receive benefits, but in fact this measure contributed to a decrease in the population’s interest in registering: why the extra paperwork and queues if it gives nothing (no work, no money )? The number of documented unemployed has decreased significantly. People, of course, rebelled (information about pogroms at labor exchanges surfaced here and there), but, as usual, they achieved nothing. On paper, all these disgruntled unemployed people simply did not exist.

After this, mass collectivization began, and the methods of its implementation forced collective farmers to forget about the possibility of looking for a better life. The peasants were securely tied to the land, which means they were “busy.” In the cities, the problem was solved by completely abolishing private property relations in the sphere of labor, that is, by prohibiting the free hiring of labor, the right to choose specialization, and making labor relations exclusively between a citizen and the state. The latter itself provided jobs and itself determined who, how and why would work for them.

All together, these measures, although not only did not solve, but only aggravated the problem of low labor efficiency, nevertheless made it possible to make a statement about a complete and unconditional victory over unemployment. On March 13, 1930, at the last Soviet labor exchange, the last job assignment was issued to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov. After which the exchange closed. The Pravda newspaper wrote about this: “The proletariat of the USSR, in alliance with the working peasantry under the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), defeating class enemies and their supporters, in a fierce struggle for socialism, achieved the complete elimination of unemployment in the USSR.” This statement was especially timely from a political and propaganda point of view, because the Great Depression was just raging in the West, the stock exchanges were overcrowded, and the Soviet leadership promised the complete collapse of capitalism not today or tomorrow.

The fight against parasitism, in many ways, immediately turned into a witch hunt. Because it is impossible to derive clear and uniform rules for everyone about who is considered to be working and who is evading work. Abuses arose, neighbors settled scores with the unwanted through slander, and free interpretations of legal norms arose. Among those brought to justice for parasitism in the first three years of the decree alone, 37 thousand people were found to be sick or completely disabled. There were also many victims among citizens who tried to earn extra money by selling vegetables and fruits grown in their summer cottages. Despite the fact that these citizens even had a main job. But many, to whom this decree was supposedly aimed, skipped past. There were also political victims at the decree, the most famous of whom was the poet Joseph Brodsky.

On March 13, 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange closed. The USSR declared itself the first country in the world to overcome unemployment.

In Russia, labor exchanges created by city governments arose at the beginning of the twentieth century in the largest industrial centers - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga, Odessa. Along with them, private intermediary firms became widespread, charging high fees from the unemployed for providing work.

In the USSR, labor exchanges existed in the first years of Soviet power. They were an instrument of the proletarian state in the systematic fight against unemployment - the “legacy of capitalism.” The decree “On Labor Exchanges”, published on January 31, 1918 and signed by V.I. Lenin, liquidated all private and paid bureaus and hiring offices and established state free labor exchanges. They were entrusted with: employment of the unemployed, issuing benefits to them, accounting and distribution of workers in all sectors of the national economy, as well as streamlining the demand and supply of labor, organizing public works, etc.

Stalin made the fight against unemployment in the USSR one of the most important tasks.

“One of the main achievements of the five-year plan in 4 years is that we eliminated unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” Stalin I.V., Results of the first five-year plan, “Questions of Leninism”, p. 501, ed. 10th.

On March 13, 1930, the last job order was issued at the Moscow Labor Exchange - to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov, after which the exchange closed.

Modern Russia

It’s not very often that representatives of big business allow themselves the luxury of being frank. The most odious initiatives of employers, such as Prokhorov’s amendments to the Labor Code, are usually accompanied by demagoguery about social responsibility and the desire to make working people happy. All the more valuable are the revelations of businessmen like Oleg Tinkov, who do not hesitate to publicly express the cherished thoughts and aspirations of their class.

The billionaire shared his impressions after visiting a sneaker factory in China in the video blog of Finance magazine. According to Tinkov, unemployment is an excellent incentive for increasing labor productivity.

“So we need to teach technologies, and the factor that forces us to implement these technologies is the queue on the streets. These times, fortunately, have come. I actually love this crisis. I like it because efficiency and labor productivity increase, people become more accommodating. Otherwise there were no waiters to be found in the restaurant... They’ll go now, thank God. And they will work better for the same money. This is good", says Tinkov.

Monstrous working conditions in Chinese enterprises, famous for their meager wages, widespread use of child labor, disregard for basic safety rules and the brutal suppression of labor protests, are the object of constant criticism from international organizations and trade unions. Such factories are aptly named sweatshops. Mr. Tinkov, without a shadow of embarrassment, proclaims lawlessness and poverty as a condition for “increasing labor productivity.”

We should be grateful to Mr. Tinkov. The more such revelations there are, the sooner thinking Russian workers will begin to see the essence behind the smooth speeches of the gentlemen from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the government, the sooner they will develop in themselves the same clear understanding of their class interests as the Tinkovs.

Reference:

Oleg Tinkov was born on December 25, 1967 in Leninsk-Kuznetsky. Since 1992, he was engaged in the wholesale trade of electronics from Singapore and created the Tekhnoshok chain of household appliance stores, the MusicShok chain of stores, and the SHOK-Records recording studio in St. Petersburg. In 1997, he sold these companies and started the dumpling business, producing products under the Daria brand. In 2003, he created the Tinkoff brewing company (sold in 2005, the proceeds from the transaction are estimated at approximately 200 million €) and a restaurant chain of the same name with their own breweries (sold on September 24, 2009). Since 2006, he has headed the commercial bank Tinkoff. Credit Systems". In October 2012, Oleg Tinkov, together with other shareholders, sold a 4% stake in TKS Bank to the Horizon Capital fund for $40 million, thus his entire business was valued at $1 billion. In April 2013, Forbes magazine placed him in the ranking of newcomers among the richest businessmen of Russia.

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Forced industrialization

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Basic knowledge

Dates/events

1925- XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), which proclaimed a course towards industrialization in the USSR.
1928-1932- The first five-year plan.
1933-1937- Second five-year plan.
1930- Elimination of mass unemployment, closure of labor exchanges.
1934- The XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) approved the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy for 1933-1937.

Terminology

forced industrialization in the USSR- creation in the shortest possible time of a powerful heavy industry, on the basis of which the country’s defense capability (military-industrial complex), light industry and agriculture would be strengthened. Industrialization was also intended to solve social issues - to end unemployment and increase the size of the working class - the support of Soviet power.
Urbanization(from Latin urbanus - urban) - the historical process of increasing the role of cities in the development of society.
Stakhanov movement- movement of workers in the USSR to increase labor productivity and best use technology. It arose in 1935 in the coal industry of Donbass (named after its founder, miner A.G. Stakhanov), and spread to other industries, transport, and agriculture.
Socialist competition- competition in labor productivity between state enterprises, workshops, teams and individual workers, as well as educational institutions Labor reserves. Ideologically it was supposed to replace capitalist competition.
Drummers- workers demonstrating increased labor productivity. This concept originated in the Soviet Union during the first five-year plans. The word is associated with the expression “impact work,” that is, work with full effort, focused on exceeding established standards and deadlines. The expression “shock brigade” was also common. The shock movement was an important means of ideological influence. The names of the shock workers who achieved the most impressive results were widely used as role models (miner Alexei Stakhanov, locomotive driver Pyotr Krivonos, tractor driver Pasha Angelina, steelmaker Makar Mazai and many others), they received the highest government awards, they were nominated to elected bodies and etc.
Gulag(Main Directorate of Camps and Places of Detention) - a division of the NKVD of the USSR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the Ministry of Justice of the USSR, which managed places of mass forced confinement and detention in 1930-1960.

Personalities

Stakhanov A.G.- Soviet miner, innovator of the coal industry, founder of the Stakhanov movement, Hero of Socialist Labor (1970). In 1935, a group of miner Stakhanov and two fasteners produced 14 times more coal in one shift than was prescribed per miner.
Trotsky L.D.- (1879-1940), politician and statesman. He advocated forced industrialization at the expense of the peasant majority. The main provisions of the economic platform of the left wing, which in addition to Trotsky also included Zinoviev, Kamenev, Radek, Preobrazhensky, were presented at the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) held in April 1927.
Bukharin N.I.- (1888-1938), politician, academician. At the end of the 1920s. opposed the use of emergency measures during collectivization and industrialization, which was declared “a right-wing deviation in the CPSU (b).” A supporter of “soft” transformations and the development of a market economy. As an economist, Bukharin pointed out the growing imbalance between various sectors of the economy, the danger of a continuous increase in capital costs, and objected to the redistribution of national wealth from agriculture to industry. Criticizing Stalin’s course, Bukharin wrote: “Crazy people dream of gigantic, gluttonous construction projects that for years give nothing and take too much.” In the article “Lenin's Political Testament,” Bukharin criticized the “general line” of the party, contrasting it with Lenin’s views set forth in his last works. Representatives of the “right” faction (N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, M.P. Tomsky) spoke out for the development of small-scale production and the continuation of the NEP, the intensification of agricultural production without consolidation of agricultural production, in a natural (with an emphasis on private owners) way , for the construction of an industrial industry as commodity production (primarily grain) in agriculture grows (industrialization according to the Bunge-Witte method at the expense of income from grain exports).
Stalin I.V.- (1878-1953), Soviet politician and statesman. Headed in 1920-40. party majority, which included such prominent party figures as L.M. Kaganovich, G.K. Ordzhonikidze, A.I. Mikoyan, M.I. Kalinin, M.M. Litvinov, S.V. Kosior, V. M.Molotov, N.M.Shvernik, A.A.Zhdanov, V.V.Kuibyshev, K.E.Voroshilov, A.V.Lunacharsky, S.M.Kirov. This majority, having defeated the Trotskyists, also advocated intensive industrialization as part of Lenin’s triune approach to building socialism in the USSR (industrialization, collectivization, cultural revolution).

Presentations

Industrialization in the USSR

Lectures

"Industrialization

By the mid-20s, the economy was approaching 1913 levels. The restoration policy was quickly ending. The task arose not so much of re-equipping existing factories, mines, and oil fields, but of building new enterprises. After all, the country still remained predominantly agrarian, peasant, in which the bulk of the workers were engaged in manual labor; Unemployment grew in the city, the village became overpopulated. The need to expand the scale of industrialization and turn to new construction was obvious by 1925. The XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), held in December 1925, appears in Russian historiography as a congress of industrialization. Indeed, at the congress, Stalin spoke for the first time about the course towards industrialization as the general line of the party; the main task of industrialization was formulated: to transform the USSR from a country importing machinery and equipment into a country producing machinery and equipment, so that in a situation of capitalist encirclement the USSR would represent an economic an independent state built in a socialist manner.
In the fall of 1926, the XV Party Conference considered it possible to put forward a slogan calling on the Soviet people to catch up and surpass the capitalist world in the shortest possible time. On October 1, 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan, scheduled for 1928/29-1932/33, officially began, although its main tasks were approved in April 1929 by the XVI Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and then in May approved by the V Congress of Soviets. Industrialization was considered as the leading beginning of socialist construction throughout the country and in all spheres of the national economy. With the rapid growth of industry, the highest rates were envisaged for the industries of group “A”, i.e., the production of means of production. 78% of all capital investments in industry were directed here. The gross output of large industry should have increased more than 2 times, and in the industries of group “A” - more than 3 times.
In December 1929, Stalin put forward the slogan: “Five-year plan in four years!” All planned indicators were revised upward by almost 2 times. Stalin's call was enthusiastically received by almost all segments of the population. Millions of people with great enthusiasm, almost for free, worked on the construction sites of the Five-Year Plan. Socialist competition unfolded throughout the country. The scale of the tasks and the extreme limitation of material resources financial resources contributed to a sharp increase in central planning. Tasks, resources and forms of remuneration are strictly regulated. There was only one goal - to concentrate maximum forces and resources in heavy industry.
During the years of the first five-year plan, the following were built: Dneproges, Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants, Ural copper plant, Ridder polymetallic plant, Volkhov aluminum plant, Stalingrad and Kharkov tractor plants, Moscow and Gorky automobile plants, Minsk machine tool plant, Turkestan-Siberian Railway(Turksib), new coal mines of Kuzbass and Donbass, new oil fields of Baku. Total about 1500 industrial facilities.. Mechanical engineering has made serious progress. Entire industries appeared that did not exist in pre-revolutionary Russia: aviation, tractor, electric power, chemical industries, etc. The USSR was turning from a country importing industrial equipment into a country producing equipment.
The Soviet Union experienced a shortage of engineering and technical personnel. In order to solve this problem, the network of technical universities was rebuilt and expanded, their funding funds were increased, industrial academies were opened, evening departments were established in institutes, and at the same time the number of workers' faculties was increased. It became a practice to send advanced workers to study on vouchers from party, Komsomol and trade union organizations. As a result, in the first five-year period the country received 128.5 thousand specialists with higher and secondary education, and 45% of the replenishment were yesterday's workers.
The achievements are impressive, but no less impressive were the failures of the Great Leap Forward in industrialization. The planned tasks of the “first five-year plan” were essentially thwarted, and the real results lagged far behind not only the target figures of the inflated plan, but also the original “optimal” plan. The rate of industrial development fell from 23.7% in 1928-1929 to 5% in 1933, and lack of funds led to the cessation of appropriations for 613 of the 1,659 major heavy industrial projects under construction. In connection with the issue, inflationary processes intensified. Social tension grew in the cities, where millions of rural residents driven by collectivization from their homes rushed. The cheap labor of yesterday's peasants was widely used on the construction sites of the Five-Year Plan, many of which were built by hand, and industrial growth did not occur by increasing labor productivity, but by attracting new workers. It took a long time and with great difficulty for newly built enterprises to reach their designed capacity. Due to the low qualifications of the new workers, the technology was slowly mastered. Expensive imported machines fell into disrepair or could not produce performance standards that met the standard for a long time.
The communications system lagged behind the pace of industrialization. Rail, sea and river transport remained vulnerable. Of the new transport routes envisaged in the construction plan, only a third were implemented. Serious imbalances developed in the national economy: light industry was sacrificed to heavy industry and began to seriously lag behind it; agricultural production was in decline. It was during the years of the “Great Leap Forward” that deep economic imbalances were formed, which for decades to come would characterize the entire development of the economy and society in the USSR.
Historians agree that failures in the implementation of the first five-year plan forced the Stalinist leadership to announce its early implementation (in four years and three months) in order to make adjustments to the planning. At the January 1933 plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Stalin stated that there was now no need to “spur and urge the country on” and the pace of industrial construction should be slowed down. In January - February 1934, the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) approved the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy for 1933-1937. It shows the average annual growth rate industrial products decreased to 16.5% (versus 30% in the first five-year plan). Miscalculations in the development of light industry were taken into account, which was now expected to outstrip heavy industry (14.5%) in terms of average annual production growth (18.5%).
During the years of the second five-year plan, the following were built: the Ural Heavy Engineering Plant (Uralmash) and the Kramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, the Ural Carriage Plant, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant (ChTZ), the Novotulsky Metallurgical Plant, Voskresensky, Nevsky, Aktobe, Gorlovsky, Bobrikovsky and other chemical plants, Moscow metro There are about 4,500 industrial facilities in total.
At the beginning of 1929, a campaign began to launch mass socialist competition in production and construction. Press and public organizations intensively promoted various labor initiatives, many of which were taken up by the workers. The most widespread forms of competition are the movement of shock workers, the movement for the adoption of counter plans, the “continuity”, the movement to “catch up and overtake” capitalist countries in terms of production volumes and labor productivity. Socialist competition was proclaimed one of the main conditions for fulfilling the tasks of the Five-Year Plan.
A bright page in the history of industrialization was the Stakhanov movement, which embraced wide layers of workers. The beginning and name of this movement was given by the miner Alexei Stakhanov, who set a record in September 1935 by fulfilling 14 labor standards during a shift. Stakhanov's successes gained all-Union fame, and the movement quickly spread to all sectors of industry. In fact, the national heroes, along with Stakhanov, were the miner N. Izotov, the blacksmith A. Busygin, the metallurgist A. Mazai, the textile workers, the Vinogradov sisters, and others. At the same time, the desire to set records also had a downside. The insufficient preparedness of newly appointed economic managers and the inability of the majority of workers to master new equipment sometimes led to its damage and disorganization of production.
By the end of the 30s in absolute volumes industrial production The USSR took 2nd place in the world after the USA. The gap with the leading powers in industrial production per capita has narrowed. The USSR became one of three or four countries in the world capable of producing any type of industrial product. The Great Patriotic War staged a merciless exam Soviet economy. And on the whole she withstood it. The basis of military success was the powerful industrial potential created in the 30s.
Based on materials from the lecture course “National History” of the Ryazan State University named after S.A. Yesenina. The lecture materials were published under the "open content" right

Unemployment in the USSR was eliminated in 1930, when the last job application was officially issued to a certain mechanic worker named Shkunov at the Moscow Labor Exchange.

Soviet labor exchanges arose throughout the country during the period when V. I. Lenin’s decree “On labor exchanges,” adopted at the beginning of 1918, came into force. The document outlined a plan for how to reorganize work with the population to provide jobs, pay benefits when registering the unemployed, and also indicated the immediate cessation of the work of all commercial labor exchanges that previously operated on a paid basis.

The decree “On Labor Exchanges” talked about how to correctly organize the supply and demand for jobs in the country in all spheres of the national economy.
The Bolsheviks intended to eliminate the legacy of capitalism, which was unemployment, in the shortest possible time.

With the beginning of the systematic nationalization of all lands and branches of agriculture and industry, attracting a huge number of people from rural areas to the city, new jobs were created.

By the beginning of the 30s, the collectivization plan was completed and the industrialization of the country began - this provided an influx of new workers.

J.V. Stalin expressed his historical thought that by 1930 the five-year plan had been completed in 4 years and its main achievement was “that we destroyed unemployment and saved the workers of the USSR from its horrors.” In March 1930, the Moscow Labor Exchange was closed down as unnecessary, and the Bolsheviks loudly declared themselves to the whole world as a country that had completely defeated unemployment.

For the unemployed of this world, such information was like a breath of hope.

How was it even possible to get rid of unemployment in such a short time?

Labor exchanges in the USSR, of course, were closed, but they also turned a blind eye to those who were left out of society; more precisely, unemployment simply did not fit into the already created system of the totalitarian state of the USSR. And the real unemployment simply went underground. A systematic persecution of identified “parasites” began, who were subjected to administrative penalties through the People’s Commissariat of Labor, which was headed by the Bolshevik A.M. Tsikhon.

At that moment, all payments to the unemployed stopped and an order came into force for the compulsory retraining of the unemployed previously registered at the Soviet labor exchange. By 1931, about 250,000 unemployed people across the country were undergoing retraining.

Those who had previously been on the labor exchange in the USSR had their benefits and allowances canceled, but were also immediately given directions to work. Neither professional, nor age, nor territorial factors (place of residence) were taken into account. For example, a person with a higher education did not have the slightest opportunity to refuse a job, for example, as a laborer at a meat processing plant or a miner, otherwise he was recognized as a parasite. The more a person refused, the more disastrous his situation became, both financially and territorially - jobs were offered further and further from his place of residence.

With the abolition of Soviet labor exchanges, unemployment acquired a hidden form.

In the absence of labor exchanges in the USSR, only in the 30s, millions of peasants who moved to the cities after collectivization and the outbreak of famine received jobs in enterprises with a reduced work schedule and a continuous three-shift work schedule. This system provided more jobs in more than half the businesses in the country. By 1932, over a million former unemployed people had found work.

The liquidation of labor exchanges in the USSR led to the problem of unskilled workers, and Stalin expressed a new thesis: “Cadres decide everything!” “Socially alien” and kulak elements began to be expelled from enterprises; unemployed people previously registered on the Soviet labor exchange were sent to their places.

Those who did not have a job were administratively sent to forced labor. Labor exchanges in the USSR were transformed into territorial personnel departments, their work consisted of an uninterrupted supply of labor to the national economy and correction of its redistribution for the country's shock construction projects.

However, these departments, which replaced the Soviet labor exchanges, did not cope with the task at all. As industrial career guidance increased in the country, by the end of the 30s, the personnel departments at each enterprise began to work on recruiting personnel - “forging personnel” on the ground. The work of retraining and providing qualified workers in accordance with the needs of each individual enterprise came under their full responsibility.

By the mid-30s, they stopped talking about the homeless and the hungry, and by the early 40s in the USSR, any mention of unemployment, any kind of strikes or labor conflicts completely disappeared.

Victoria Maltseva

83 years ago there was no unemployment. True, she died only in one particular country, and only according to official reports, but the story about this has still been preserved. On March 13, 1930, the last labor exchange in the USSR, the Moscow one, closed. After this, the Soviet Union declared itself the first country in the world to finally end unemployment.

Labor exchanges were first created in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their branches appeared in several large cities of the Russian Empire: in Moscow, Riga, Odessa, and, of course, in the capital St. Petersburg. In addition to them, private offices arose that provided employment for a fee.

With the Bolsheviks coming to power, the latter were abolished, and unemployment itself was declared a shameful “legacy of capitalism.” The struggle against the “heritage” began, which was greatly hampered by the NEP: people without income were drawn from the villages to the cities, and in the meantime, in the cities, factories were closed en masse, and factory staff were reduced. There were more and more unemployed people, they held protests, and it became clear that action was urgently required.

And measures did not fail to appear. In July 1924, new registration rules were introduced: those who had less than 6-7 years of work experience were prohibited from registering for unemployment, as were those who did not have working qualifications. Those who met these requirements, but were already registered, were removed from the register. As "low value elements". At the same time, unemployment benefit payments stopped. Formally, in order not to indulge those who do not want to work, but only want to receive benefits, but in fact this measure contributed to a decrease in the population’s interest in registering: why the extra paperwork and queues if it gives nothing (no work, no money )? The number of documented unemployed has decreased significantly. People, of course, rebelled (information about pogroms at labor exchanges surfaced here and there), but, as usual, they achieved nothing. On paper, all these disgruntled unemployed people simply did not exist.

After this, mass collectivization began, and the methods of its implementation forced collective farmers to forget about the possibility of looking for a better life. The peasants were securely tied to the land, which means they were “busy.” In the cities, the problem was solved by completely abolishing private property relations in the sphere of labor, that is, by prohibiting the free hiring of labor, the right to choose specialization, and making labor relations exclusively between a citizen and the state. The latter itself provided jobs and itself determined who, how and why would work for them.

All together, these measures, although not only did not solve, but only aggravated the problem of low labor efficiency, nevertheless made it possible to make a statement about a complete and unconditional victory over unemployment. On March 13, 1930, at the last Soviet labor exchange, the last job assignment was issued to mechanic Mikhail Shkunov. After which the exchange closed. The Pravda newspaper wrote about this: “The proletariat of the USSR, in alliance with the working peasantry under the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), defeating class enemies and their supporters, in a fierce struggle for socialism, achieved the complete elimination of unemployment in the USSR.” This statement was especially timely from a political and propaganda point of view, because the Great Depression was just raging in the West, the stock exchanges were overcrowded, and the Soviet leadership promised the complete collapse of capitalism not today or tomorrow.

The fight against parasitism, in many ways, immediately turned into a witch hunt. Because it is impossible to derive clear and uniform rules for everyone about who is considered to be working and who is evading work. Abuses arose, neighbors settled scores with the unwanted through slander, and free interpretations of legal norms arose. Among those brought to justice for parasitism in the first three years of the decree alone, 37 thousand people were found to be sick or completely disabled. There were also many victims among citizens who tried to earn extra money by selling vegetables and fruits grown in their summer cottages. Despite the fact that these citizens even had a main job. But many, to whom this decree was supposedly aimed, skipped past. There were also political victims at the decree, the most famous of whom was the poet Joseph Brodsky.